Faithful
by AceShadow
Summary: The Kids Next Door is in complete disarray, devastated by an attack by a hostile power. With Nigel still gone with the Galactic Kids Next Door, Rachel fights with the remnants of the organization against the enemy occupation. As they fight miles apart against a new mysterious enemy, the two will uncover a conspiracy that extends all the way out into the stars.
1. Introduction

_**Chapter 1: Introduction**_

"Almost makes you forget what was once here huh?" his voice traveled with the wind, reaching the ears of everyone standing on the hill. They looked out, a city in complete ruins, now left to rot and decay.

Another teen comments, "Yeah... this place used to be so beautiful, now look at it, those dirty bastards," the boy clenched his fist into the air. He was angry, and rightfully so. _They_ took everything.

Most of them couldn't comprehend why, but all of them remembered perfectly how everything went down. Why they failed to act earlier, they would never know, but one thing was certain, they were _losing_.

A girl, perhaps around her late teens stares out into the darkening horizon. She longed for the days when things were much more simple and peaceful. It's been three years since everything happened, three years since _they _came.

Up above her was the endless stretch of beautiful stars. Long ago, a boy dear to her heart left on a mission that was even beyond her. She wondered when would he ever return, if he ever did at all.

It's been years since they said their farewells, and she recalled one of the last things he said to her before he left on his journey.

"_One day Rachel, one day... I know I won't be there for you for, but remember no matter what happens, always remember to keep your faith"_

Her eyes were lit up by the bright stars that continued to shine overhead.

_Faith._ A word she would never forget.

* * *

_**Forced**_

_**Adjustments**_

_**In**_

_**Time**_

_**Help**_

_**Forward**_

_**Undying**_

_**Love**_


	2. A New Era

_**Chapter 2: A New Era**_

...Connection Established...

_2 years before incident_

"Hey Numbuh 362, have you seriously ever thought about you know, taking a break?!"

Rachel ignored Patton's comment as they walked down the packed corridors of the Moon Base halls. Things now a days were normal, and oddly enough, the blonde commander was glad of it. However, in the wake of the destruction caused by a previous war, the Kids Next Door emerged as a world superpower. It's main territories expanded across North America, and it's might was felt throughout the world. Rachel, the Supreme Leader, was now also deemed the most powerful person on the planet. From making diplomatic arrangements with new powers that had sprung up after the war, to sending soldiers to aid in humanitarian efforts, she managed it all.

It was truly was a _new era_, in more ways than one. Only a few weeks after Nigel's departure, a strange new virus appeared out of thin air. Instead of killing humans, it did something quite different, some may argue even quite beneficial. When infected, the virus seemed to halt or even reverse the aging effects of the host. No one knew how this virus came to be, but some speculated that it may have come from outer space, sent by _someone_ or _something_ directly to Earth. As a result, aging seemed to cease after age 18 was reached. Why age 18? Nobody knew. And since this unusual outbreak was relatively new, no one knew if it contained any possible consequences. But as of now, there appeared to be none.

She rushed through the hallways, finally arriving at the Moon Base command post, Patton trailing close behind. Geeze, he thought, this girl desperately needs to take a vacation.

"Did you hear me Numbuh 362?!" Patton waved as she walked up the stars to sit on her chair that over looked the entire deck.

Seriously, she was tired of everyone constantly nagging her to take a break. It had been only a four months since Nigel left, and ever since then she had done nothing but work, work, work. It was her way of coping with the pain, her way of keeping herself busy from thinking about Nigel. Rachel glared at the black haired boy, "I heard you the first time Numbuh 60, now seriously can you just leave me alone? I have some important things to do." Reluctantly the boy backed off and saluted, "Whatever you say Supreme Leader."

Rachel watched him walk down the stairs onto the first floor of the deck. Finally, she thought, some alone time. She sighed and pulled out a folder she was holding onto this whole time. She settled it on her desk, careful that none of the operatives behind her doing paperwork were peaking. The picture of a bald young boy wearing a red sweater and shades emerged from the folder. His smile, filled with confidence and a sense of duty; a trait that was so rare in the organization these days. On his picture was stamped 'MISSING'. No one could find him, hell the KND even launched a month long search to the find the boy, but they found nothing. It was like he disappeared from the face of the planet. But Rachel knew where he went. She could still remember the day he left, the day they said their final good byes... it was a day she'd never forget.

"STOOOOPID BOY!" the voice deafened all the operatives in the room, including Rachel. _Oh for heaven sake, why is Fanny yelling this time_. She stomped her way down to the first level of the command post, demanding an explanation from her red-headed friend.

Fanny looked like she was full of rage, enough to make most of the children take a step back. Too them, it looked she was ready to tear apart the boy before her, who looked back just as defiantly. But Rachel knew better, besides she was the Supreme Leader. "Ok Fanny, what the hell happened this time?"

Fanny diverted her vision to Rachel, "Well this stupid boy, did something stupid," Rachel looked at her strangely, "and that was...?"

Fanny turned to grab an ice cream cone from the control panel, "He got me strawberry when I specifically wanted cherry!" _You've got to be freaking kidding me, _Rachel said in her head, all this yelling and commotion over a stupid mistake regarding an ice cream flavor?! Now she was really ticked off.

"Are you KIDDING ME NUMBUH 86?!" Fanny stepped back, she'd never seen her Supreme Leader so angry. "Seriously Fanny, can you manage ONE DAY, one day without yelling at half the command post? Geeze, and too make matters worse, you yell at them for the _stupidest_ things! You know what, I might just replace you, I can't stand your nonsense anymore!" Fanny began to tear up, Rachel had gotten mad at her before, but never at such a scale. The Scottish girl deflated and turned her back towards her blonde friend.

Realizing the harshness of her words, Rachel walked up to her friend and placed her hand on the red-headed girl's shoulder. "Hey look, I'm sorry I didn't mean all of that." Fanny sniffed, "I know, but I'm the one who should be sorry. I know it's hard being the Supreme Leader, and my stoopid behavior just makes it worse for ya." That was partly true, but not the whole reason why she was so stressed. "It's ok Fanny, look I'll go get someone else to get you some more ice cream... wait a second, what are you doing eating on the job anyway?!" Fanny smiled sheepishly, "Well if you look at the time, I got to um... decommission someone." she slowly shuffled away, until she was finally out of view from Rachel's stern stare. Ugh, whatever, she'd let this go, they were just kids after all.

Rachel walked up back to the 2nd floor of the deck, sitting back comfortably in her cushioned chair.

She looked up through the thick glass ceiling, focusing her eyes on the peaceful stars. She sat in thought, wondering what her bald headed friend was doing at this very moment.

* * *

"Beautiful isn't it?" A girl says in the distance. The bald boy quickly turns to spot the owner of the voice, "Oh, it's you."

He was gazing back up at the millions of stars that littered the sky, narrowing his vision towards a star where he thought Earth may be. The girl approached him from behind and rested her arms on the guardrails. She quietly scooted next to him and smiled. The girl was about the same age as him, around her early teens. Like him, she was also chosen to join the GKND, but a bit earlier than him.

He stared blankly at the emptiness of space, knowing that somewhere out there was his home, a home he was millions of miles away from. Whether he knew it or not, he began to wonder if his Earthly companion was having the same thoughts as him. "Hey Naomi, when you... you know left Earth, was it hard for you to say good-bye?" He looked at her through his shades that were presented to him as a gift from the GKND. Sure it was more fancy and high tech, but he sorely missed his old pair, the ones he gave to Abby just before he left.

She thought about her answer for a minute, "Yeah... saying goodbye was the hardest part, especially when you don't know when or if you would ever come back." Her voice was soft and gentle, almost reminding him of someone he left back home. Naomi glimpsed at the boy next to her, "I left someone who I cared for very much, but now I don't know if he's even alive." she paused for a minute, "Especially after you told me of this horrible war between the Kids Next Door and Father, I really don't know anymore." The brunette remained silent, looking down at the dozen of GKND operatives walking around on the deck below. Nigel briefly glanced at her, taking in all of her features.

Naomi or Numbuh 410, was one of Nigel's first friends since he was enlisted by the GKND, and ever since they've become quite close. She was a very pretty girl, and had a very defined physique for a girl her age. Her skin was fairly light, and her eyes emitted a familiar brown color. She wore a black sweater and black pants, almost resembling that of Numbuh 362 in her spying days.

Overall, the girl before him was dazzling, both inside and out, and he wondered who the lucky guy back on Earth was. The way she held herself reminded him of someone... someone who was still waiting for him to return. Nigel, however, wasn't interested in the brunette girl, and she wasn't into him either, both of them too committed to their significant other back on Earth.

It dawned upon him, he'd only been gone a few months but already he was already feeling homesick, "You think we'll ever go back home?" Nigel questioned. Naomi glared back at him, fashioning an adorable smile. "Maybe Nigel, only time will tell. Say, didn't you say something about you being with a girl named '_Rachel_?'

He looked back at her with a questionable gaze, "Um... yeah, why?"

She giggled to herself, man this guy really sucks at keeping a conversation going! "Just asking, besides, I heard that talking about our loved ones while we're away helps us feel closer to them, you know?" He stiffened even more, slowly rotating his head away from her. "I guess..."

Coming to the realization that she may have made things awkward, she got closer to him and gently placed her hand on his shoulder, "Hey, I didn't mean to come off like that, I'm just saying that maybe you should talk to someone about her. Keeping your feelings bottled inside isn't healthy after all." Her pretty voice ringed throughout his ears, and the way she touched him on his shoulder made him relax. He knew she wasn't doing this to try to sway him from his devotion to Rachel, but he felt guilty that he enjoyed her company more than he should have. Ever since he'd been away from Rachel, Naomi was the only girl to comfort him, to give him support. Crazy or not, sometimes he could swear that she was Rachel.

He gradually loosened his body, maybe he should just talk to this girl about Rachel. After all, keeping thoughts of his blonde companion all inside his mind wasn't helping him in the slightest bit.

"Well Rachel she..." Nigel rambled on about the girl. Realizing that finally he was opening up, the brunette got closer, her attention completely diverted to him.

The large space cruiser they were stationed upon slowly made it's way around the empty vacuum of space, headed back to base.

* * *

Perhaps she should take a vacation, but she couldn't especially when everyone else around her were so incapable of running the Kids Next Door while she left. Even though she didn't notice, _everyone_ else did. Recently, she had become more irritable and short-tempered, and some speculated that it had to do something with Nigel's sudden disappearance. Others had a much more simpler explanation, since she was close to becoming a teen... well, must be that time of the month.

She did not however, lose the respect of her fellow operatives. All of them still remember clearly how she managed to pull the Kids Next Door together even in the most desperate of times, despite facing almost certain defeat. She was considered a hero, and even an idol to some. But she could care less about all of that. Rachel believed herself as simply doing her job. Too her, it was her duty as Supreme Leader.

She walked around the Moon Base command post under the large screens that littered the room. Transmissions from different Sectors were being established left and right, all of them making requests, reporting in important intelligence, and so on.

Rachel came upon Numbuh 86, who was busy shouting at just about, well everyone who wasn't a girl. "Hey can you ring up Sector V?" Fanny stopped what she was doing, "Um, forgive me sir but why? Things have been peaceful in that area." Rachel sighed, "Just do it", Fanny nodded, "Bring up Sector V" she ordered the screen.

The transmission opened up with Numbuh 5 reporting in. "This is Numbuh 5, Leader of Sector V Supreme Leader sir!" Rachel saluted back, "At ease Numbuh 5, how's your Sector been doing."

"Good, just hasn't been the same since... you know" Rachel nodded, understanding what the dark-skinned girl was talking about.

"Yeah... well has Father been following the terms of the peace treaty?" Rachel awaited for her answer, hoping that the supervillain wasn't up to anything... again. Abby paused and checked data on the tree house computer. "Yep, nothing unusual coming from the Delightful Mansion, anything else?" She dug through her memory to see if she had wanted to ask Numbuh 5 anything else, but that appeared to be it. "Nope, resume back to normal duties, Numbuh 362 out."

"Hey Rachel." Abby said before signing out. "What is it Numbuh 5?" the blonde girl responded back, shocked that someone called her by her name rather then her operative number. No one ever called her that, unless they were extremely close or had a personal message to tell her.

"You should take it easy, I'm sure that's what _he_ would've wanted." Rachel sighed, "Is that all Numbuh 5?" Abby nodded, "Yeah." Rachel hastily saluted and the new leader of Sector V did the same in return, ending the transmission.

Rachel stumbled back up to her office, checking in for any important mail or voice mails. She checked through all of them, nothing unusual like always. A far cry from the task she had to deal with not too long ago. If trying to keep the whole KND united against Father wasn't easy, dealing with a shadow organization bent on taking over the whole entire world by indoctrinating the human race just made it even more difficult. An to top it all of, she was also tasked to help reconstruct the war torn areas effected by the war. But now a days things were, oddly enough, much more peaceful. With the Kids Next Door now a superpower wielding more authority than ever, disputes with foreign powers became much more manageable to deal with.

The KND had a a twenty four hour watch on things back on Earth, with a navy patrolling it's oceans constantly, an orbital fleet that could deploy anywhere in the world almost instantly, and bases(or sectors) littered on every corner of the world. Also, it was the only entity to possess satellite weaponry powerful enough to annihilate an entire city.

To Rachel, it had seem that things had finally turned for the better, with the Kids Next Door now taking the role as a peace keeping force on Earth, and this 'mysterious' virus keeping everyone young.

Little did she know that this small moment in time would be short-lived.

...Transmission Interrupted...


	3. Strange Occurances

_**Chapter 3: Strange Occurances**_

...Connection Re-Established...

_1 year and 6 months before incident_

Rachel was hurriedly rushed out of the decommissioning chamber, quickly escorted by a number of other teens. The ex-Supreme Leader had just turned thirteen, but contrary to what everyone else thought back in the theater, she was wasn't decommissioned. Instead, she was recruited by the Teens Next Door, which unfortunately, was still a secret branch of the organization; despite proving their loyalty countless times. At first, she was reluctant to accept their invitation; why should she join when a majority of the operatives she served with would have their memories erased? Too her it wasn't fair, but due to recent events that seemed to pose a danger to the Kids Next Door, she felt an obligation to remain in service.

Her farewell to her friends was emotional to say the least, especially her goodbye to Fanny. It was sad knowing that while she would remember all of them, perhaps none would remember her. They would, however, know of the Kids Next Door due to it's overwhelming presence on Earth, but they wouldn't remember ever serving in it.

She was rushed into a back portion of the Moon Base, saluted by various members of Global Command who commended her for her service as Supreme Commander of the Kids Next Door. She arrived at a ship, one that would take her to the secret location the TND base. When Rachel drew closer to the ship, she was greeted by Chief of the TND, Maurice."Welcome to the Teens Next Door Numbuh 362", he saluted. She reluctantly saluted back, her thoughts still focused on the many operatives she left behind. Maurice attempted to comfort her, remembering that saying goodbye to his friends wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do either, "You know not all of them will be decommissioned," Rachel picked up on his words, and weakly nodded.

His half smile reverted back to a frown. "Most of the time we would have a warm welcoming party for newcomers, but I'm afraid we have no time for that. I'm sure your aware of the recent developments in Europe?" Rachel nodded. During her time as Supreme Leader, intelligence had recently informed her of a growing movement in Europe. This movement known commonly as 'The Revisionists" was a radical right-wing party in Europe encouraging the total overthrow or take over of government of the "European Federation of Children and Teens" or better known as EFCT. Their true motives however, were still unknown.

During the power vacuum that emerged after the war, the Kids Next Door was tasked with rebuilding much of the affected areas, with the aid of the United States, which at the time suffered the least destruction. Realizing that both could benefit from each other, the two powers combined, explaining the Kids Next Door's newfound superpower status. It remained virtually unchallenged by any rival powers, with most of the world either being allied or combining with the Kids Next Door. Ally's included the United Chinese Youth(UCY) United Adolescents of Russian Republics(UARR) and a multitude of other nations both new and old. The virus that eliminated and reversed aging also drastically changed the geopolitical landscape of the world, apparent through the names of each of these countries.

Maurice let the information sink into Rachel before he continued, "Well, the situation there is getting worse. They've almost gained complete control of the government, and have already begun reforming the whole country in their own image, which I don't think has very peaceful ambitions." Lucky her she thought, more bad news to start off her already depressing day. The EFCT up to this point was close ally of the Kids Next Door, and some would say, an extension of the organization. But now that the EFCT government was under control by Revisionist party members, that close bond between the two powers would soon cease.

"So what else do we do know?" Rachel interjected, hoping for some sort of positive response. Maurice led her into the ship that would deliver them to the TND HQ located in an undisclosed area in Nevada, "We'll discuss that when we head back to base, I just hope that your ready for your first mission."

Rachel was both excited and disappointed by Maurice's words. She was excited that she was still technically in the KND, and still going to take part in missions that would further their cause, but was at the same time disappointed that thing's looked to be headed in the wrong direction.

* * *

"Seriously Nigel, I told you not to blindly charge into the enemy you moron!"

Naomi was carefully applying medicine and bandages to several of the boy's burns. She scolded him for yet another act of stupidity and arrogance. Ugh, this idiot she thought. What brainless kid decides that it's a great idea to run straight into a group of hostile bandits equipped with state of the art laser rifles to begin with anyway?

Nigel frowned at the girl's words, trying to find a way to defend his actions. Nope, she was right, that was a totally stupid move.

"Ouch! For Pete's sake I thought you were trying to heal my burns not make them worse!" Nigel fidgeted around the hospital stretcher, which had little effect on the Brunette. Naomi merely scolded back at him, "What does it look like I'm doing?! God your so stubborn sometimes!" This made Nigel shut up, and he had to admit, she won this argument. But he didn't like it one bit.

After she applied the last bandage on his back, she stood in front of him. Softly, she grabbed both of his arms, making direct eye contact, "Look, Nigel Uno, don't think I'm yelling at you just for fun. It just upsets me how you recklessly put your life in danger, it worries me ok? Your my only friend in the Galactic Kids Next Door and I'd hate to lose you."

Valid point, but that wasn't what caught the boy's attention. She had a stern but comforting grip on him, and his vision strayed directly into her brown eyes. Nigel was oddly enough, enjoying their close proximity. He was finding it cute how she expressed her concerns about him. And then, much to his dismay she let go of her hold on him. "Next time follow my lead ok?" He nodded, itching to call her by a pet name he knew she would most certainly be aggravated by. Naomi absolutely hated tease names.

"Yeah, whatever you say cutie pie." The sound of this name caused Naomi to flinch, "What the hell did you say Nigel?!" He got closer to her face, "you heard me,_ Cutie Pie_." Annoyed of his taunt, she, to his surprise lunged up against his body, her eyes full of total aggravation.

"I dare you to say it one more time!" She got closer and closer to his face, to the point where he could practically feel their noses touching. "fine, fine you win." She giggled, "that's what I thought!". Then, a brief silence. Naomi didn't realize that she was leaning against his body in an intimate fashion, her eyes full of hunger and want. She bit her lips unconsciously, and her heart began beating faster and faster. It was only a few seconds later did she finally manage to control herself, backing off slowly, almost reluctantly.

"Sorry about that, didn't notice. I hate tease names you know that." Naomi chuckled nervously. It was wrong of her to do that and she knew very well what almost happened. But it didn't seem to faze Nigel, in fact, he almost welcomed what just happened.

But Nigel wasn't without guilty thoughts either. He knew he should've stopped right away but he didn't, instead he played along. If Rachel had witnessed the events that had just unfolded, there's no doubt she'd be furious and heartbroken, a state he never wanted to see her in. He was ashamed too say the least.

The two averted the others eyes, analyzing anything and everything but each other. None of them said a word, both of them to overwhelmed with thoughts of the situation.

The door opened, breaking the extremely uncomfortable silence that had filled the room. "Nigel and Naomi, you both come with me." Infinity ordered, his voice filled with a sense of urgency. Whatever either of them were thinking would have to wait.

* * *

The ship landed near a small abandoned shed. If this was the TND base, it sure was a sad sight to see Rachel thought to herself. Seeing her face filled with distaste, Maurice was quick to defend the shabby and run down shed that was part of their base. "It's just a cover up, the real base is entirely underground," he assured.

"I sure hope your right Maurice," she frowned.

Upon entering the dilapidated building, Rachel could see nothing but a table in the middle, a couple of overturned chairs, and an outdated stove. How this was the location of the TND base, was beyond her. She could swear with the large budget they've been given they could've perhaps thought of a more, well, presentable place for their headquarters.

Having done this a million times, Maurice pushed a hidden button underneath the table, causing a large door right underneath it to slowly slide open. It caused the entire ground to shake, causing Rachel to step back. Maurice on the other hand, was completely still. When the door's fully retracted, several dim lights revealed a short step of stairs leading down into the ground beneath them."After you Numbuh 362," the boy gestured. Rachel sighed, in her head she already imagining the TND base to be rundown, neglected, and poorly maintained, just like the Shed that served as the entrance to the place. They walked about ten steps down when they finally reached solid ground again, in front of them a large elevator shaft.

Rachel reluctantly entered the elevator. _Great_, her first impressions of the so called base were not the highest and now the crudeness of this elevator only enforced her assumptions. Maurice smirked, "State of the art I know, don't get to comfy." She snorted at his sarcastic comment.

Maurice pulled the lever which lowered the elevator. At first, nothing but layers of Earth were visible. Then, the elevator shaft came to an opening, revealing a vast and intricate underground network. They arrived at the very entrance of the base, which was a large and brightly lit tunnel. They were obligated to go through a heavily guarded checkpoint, which scanned anyone entering for explosives, weapons, or any other unauthorized weapons or personal. In order to gaurantee that the base was not infiltrated the TND installed a retina scan at the very end of the checkpoint, ensuring that only those who were given clearance could enter the base.

Rachel sighed; she hated checkpoints, they seemed to take ages to pass and felt so violating. "Do we have to go through that...? They know you already right?" Maurice shook his head, "Yeah they do, but each time we enter we have to go through this checkpoint, it's just a safety pre-caution."

After the checkpoint, much to Rachel dismay, they wasted no time to go to to the briefing room. On the way Rachel could tell very well that this was place where the KND received it most important intelligence, and also a place where new prototype weaponry was being tested. And much to her surprise, their were also preteens around. It didn't make any sense, only the Supreme Leader and Global Command knew of the existence of the TND right? Wrong. She turned to Maurice who explained in great detail on the way to the briefing room.

"Yeah, it's a bit of shocker for many of those first coming into the TND that their are regular KND operatives running around. It's like that because the TND and KND works together gathering intelligence, which makes things much easier to manage. Also the operatives you see here are already set to join the TND after they turn thirteen. It was part of a recent bill passed, aimed at taking a slow step towards making the teen segment of the organization public towards the mainstream Kids Next Door."

They traveled through the elaborate hallways which oddly enough appeared to be high-tech. The tunnels that made the base were circular and made of strange but orange panels that served as the walls. The doors opened by using an ID, and every once in awhile their would be a large LCD screen broadcasting sports or the daily news. Well then, it turns out that their budget was being put to good use.

Rachel and Maurice stopped at a door, which appeared to require higher clearance to enter due to Maurice having to have his voice, retina, and hand scanned to enter. They walked in, where everyone, including the newly Supreme Leader awaited.

"Why hello Numbuh 5, how you handling my old job?" Rachel smirked. Abby just stared , "It's only been my first day and I'm already stressed out, how you did this for god how longs, I will never know."

"Enough with the chat, let's talk about the issues at hand here," Maurice went to the front of the room, facing the long table which various high ranking personal of Global Command were seated. "I'm sure many of you are aware of Revisionist activity in Europe correct?" All of them nodded, all except Abby. "Revisonists?" She questioned, what was she out of the loop on now?

Rachel took the initiative to answer her question, "The Revisionists are a fascist like political party that have recently taken over the EFCT government. We're unsure of their goals, but as of now, they seem pretty hostile towards us." It was only Numbuh 5's first day on the job, and already she had to deal with a serious threat. "Does the rest of the KND know about this?" Maurice answered simply, "No, not yet."

"So what do you propose we do with them?" Numbuh 5 added.

"At this point in time, it's unclear. Revisionist's party members were supposedly 'elected' by the people, although we believe that to be utterly false. The election polls were most likely rigged, thus explaining their smooth take over of the EFCT". The Chief of the TND paused for a minute, "the only thing we can probably do at the moment is send in undercover TND operatives to keep gathering intel, and keep a watch on Revisionist activities."

"What other options do we got on the table, I don't like the idea of just sitting back while they openly state their goals against us. I remember the last time we did that it didn't end to pretty." The new Supreme Leader interjected, memories of the war against Father still fresh in her head.

Maurice sighed, "as of now the only thing we can do is gather as much intelligence on them as possible. After that we can decide how to deal with them." He took a deep breath, "We're considering all options, but the last thing we want is another war."

"Well guess that settles it, I'll authorize a blank check to you ensure that you get what you need to spy on the EFCT. Now if yall would excuse me, but I have a Moon Base filled with a million children to run, keep me updated." Abby exited the room, escorted by her bodyguards.

Maurice turned to Rachel.

"Suit up Rachel, looks like your going on your first official TND mission."

* * *

The two were seated, patiently waiting for Numbuh Infinity's conversation with the GKND high command to end.

What happened back there... was strange to say the least. Nigel couldn't stop thinking about it. He felt guilty, he almost allowed it to happen. Naomi was situated next to him, totally silent. After several minutes of what was probably the most awkward silence in their lives, Infinity stepped back in the room.

"I have some bad news for you two." Always bad news Nigel thought, why couldn't just for once, just ONCE, they call him in about something positive.

"What is it Infinity?" Naomi spoke up, eager to hear whatever the mysterious operative had to say.

Infinity cleared his throat, "recent intelligence suggests that our enemy has been very busy spreading out their influence to various solar systems. They've already sent splinter cells to dozens of planets," he paused, catching his breath, "the goal of each of these splinter cells it to destabilize the KND based organization on each planet and reinstate a new government that would provide the invasion force with the logistical support necessary to sustain an occupation . In other words, this is their way of divide and conquer."

Ok so basically what the boy was saying was that their enemy was trying to topple the KND on several planets in order to set the stage for the final invasion of each of these planets. Great, and Numbuh Infinity just said this would simultaneously happen on dozens of worlds. This was bad news. Both operatives were about to speak up, but were interrupted by Infinity.

"You are to be sent immediately to one of these planets, find out what their doing, and report back to us." Sure, Nigel was used to handling these sorts of missions, but just sending him and Naomi to one of the planets in hopes of uncovering the enemy's true intent? Ridiculous. Surely they dispatched other teams to the other target worlds. "Earlier you said dozens of worlds, I'm pretty sure we won't find out the enemy's plan if you just send us to one random planet..."

Infinity kept a straight face, almost like he knew he was going to ask a question like that. "I didn't say you were the only ones assigned on this case, but to answer your question, yes, we did dispatch a team to each of these planets."

Still unsatisfied with the answer, Nigel asked one more. "What do you believe their plan is?" If they knew this much, their bound to have some sort of theory. Much to his dismay, Infinity did something that made him oddly suspicious. "We believe they are invading dozens of planets in order to gain more territory, but I'm afraid anymore information than that is, unfortunately, classified."

Classified? What did he mean classified? He's Numbuh 1 for Pete's sake, son of the legendary Numbuh Zero, and they have the nerve to tell him information is, 'classified?!" His outburst surprised Naomi, but had little effect on Infinity, who remained emotionless despite Nigel's protest. "What do you mean?" A bewildered Naomi questions. Infinity again maintained a straight expression on his face, almost like he was hiding something from them, "I am not allowed to disclose that information with you at this current time. We'll update you as soon as possible. You two are now dismissed."

"But!", Nigel protested. "No, but's Numbuh 1."

Sensing the British's boy temper, Naomi pulled him out of the room.

"Geeze Nigel, what was that all about?!" she nagged. Nigel grunted out of frustration, "aren't you even slightly suspicious or mad?! Their going to send us on some mission, but not tell us everything they know? That's outrageous, they could know vital information that could help us figure out what the enemy is planning!"

She agreed with Nigel, but orders were orders, "I feel the same way as you Nigel, but whatever central command says goes. You out of all people should know that." Nigel sighed and settled down. It wasn't fair at all, it really wasn't.

Then a silence dawned upon both of them. Naomi's mind wondered back to the intimate encounter she had with Nigel. She felt something strange back in the hospital room. She really didn't mean to make Nigel so uncomfortable, she just kind of, well, did it without thinking.

"Hey Nigel... you know whatever happened back there..." Nigel interrupted before she could even finish her sentence, "Don't worry about it Naomi, I know you didn't do it on purpose." She blushed, that was... only half true.

Both of them felt that the situation they got themselves into was just plain wrong. After all, both were technically still in relationships back on Earth.

"We're just friends right?" Nigel nervously asked.

Naomi frowned and sighed, "Yeah... just friends."

* * *

Rachel arrived in Paris, capital of the European Federation of Children and Teens. In order to make her appears as normal as possible, it was decided that she get to her destination via public airlines. Not the most comfortable thing she's ever done, given the girl's high class in society. After hours of flying, her plane finally arrived in the capital. She departed the plane, passed through the customs and inspections checkpoint, and walked straight into the terminal, and immediately recognized that the Revisionists must've wasted no time reforming the Federation in their own image.

The airport personal were already dressed in new grey well-polished uniforms with black boots. They were wearing black armbands that had a small red line on both the top and bottom. The armbands were also embellished with the symbol of the Revisionists; twelve golden stars lined up as a triangle with a grey eagle in the middle holding what appeared to be two daggers on each claw. All around her, on pillars, on the ceiling, hell even inside souvenir shops were this same symbol.

Two security guards approached her, both with heavy French accents. "May I see your paperwork please?" Rachel quickly complied, grabbing her false ID's and KND passport. Her false name was 'Melanie Devine', she didn't mind the first name, but the last name, oh the irony... Whatever she thought, it's not like it was her permanent name anyway. They checked intently, but the papers were forged so well they passed it off as authentic.

"Welcome to Paris, Madam Devine." he kissed her hand, but frowned afterwords. "I see your from the KND, I'm not suppose to tell you this but watch out... this new government isn't too friendly," and just like that he left with his partner, who appeared to share the same thoughts as his friend. She shrugged it off, until she stepped outside.

Almost instantly, the sound of Revisionist propaganda blasted by the government radio filled her ears. Near her was a stand, a stand owned by the EFCT army which was handing out papers and trying to persuade people passing by to sign up. Posters of soldiers holding Revisionist flags filled the walls of each and every building, and dozens of flags representing the new European Federation fluttered in the wind around the airport plaza. Soldiers fully armed with modified G36C rifles also seemed to walk freely around the city streets.

At this point it was obvious why the security guard had given her a warning about this place. The air around her was thick, and she felt her very existence threatened while she was in the country. The Federation was once a fully functional democracy, but unfortunately with the Revisionist take over, that had ceased. The place was now a police state that put it's citizens under constant surveillance and encouraged a military first policy.

Rachel was determined to find out what the Revisionist plan was, knowing all too well what happens when people like them rise to power.

* * *

She would be staying at an elegant hotel situated near the Eiffel tower. The room matched perfectly with her, it was an accommodation she was quite used too actually. But she wasn't here on vacation, she was here on a mission.

Rachel unpacked her equipment, which consisted of a multitude of radios, weapons, and everything else you would imagine a spy would need. The TND had sent her on such a high profile mission because she was deemed the best espionage agent in the KND, and she was determined to keep that title. The blonde spy wasted no time getting to work, unpacking her laptop to gather information through whatever avenues were presented to her.

Hours later, she finally managed to hack through official Revisionist government documents, outlining their plans on 'reforming' the EFCT, but nothing that they didn't already know. Unite the country, install a new government, whatever, she wasn't here to gather information they already knew. She searched through the files, finding a growing amount of orders concerning munitions, armored vehicles, and other military hardware. Strange, but not out of the ordinary for a benevolent new government. But what intrigued her the most was what she found next the deeper she got into their files. Apparently they have been tracking... the stars? Out of all things why stars?

Now, this was definitely out of place. She kept surfing through the files, reading various articles that were for the most part blacked out. After hours of searching, she finally stumbled upon one peculiar document that was marked as top secret. Realizing that this file may contain critical information, she began to read it's content.

_**Department of Federation Defense and Offensive Capabilities**_

_**Subject: Star tracking and movement and expanding the Revisionist Cause**_

_For sometime now, our scientists have been tracking the stars. After months of extensive observation, we have concluded that the 'higher ups' have already began planning in advance preparations for the final invasion. We know this due to recent communications with our superiors and the fact that we have received various transmissions from these..._

_ERROR_

Her connection was abruptly locked out, creating a very frustrated Rachel. "Damn it!" She exclaimed quietly. She sat their thinking to herself about all the information she had just soaked up. However, the thing that bothered her the most was why on Earth would they be concerned about the stars.

She began wondering what else that document contained, which no doubt had information pertaining to why the Revisionists were so interested in various celestial bodies. The spy wanted answers, and she was going to get them no matter what.

Rachel turned to look out of her window toward the Eiffel tower. Enough with the cyberspace junk, now she was going to do spying the traditional old way.

...Transmission Interrupted...

* * *

**_A/N: Reviews and everything appreciated, thanks!_**


	4. Mysterious Connections

**_Chapter 4: Mysterious Connections_**

...Connection Re-Established...

After days of spying and infiltrating, she finally had a lead on a person who's name was "Shepherd". She determined that today he would be meeting with several unidentified individuals, and usually when that happened, there was bound to be some important information.

She was trailing him from behind, stealthily watching him from building windows and from roof tops. He was a young fellow, probably around age thirteen or fourteen, but there was no way he was once an adult. Former adults had the physical appearance of eighteen year olds, while those just turning eighteen ceased to age physically. Surprisingly he was traveling alone, which made her job slightly less daunting. He turned several corners, walking through the busy streets for almost twenty minutes, and she began to question whether or not her intel was correct.

Rachel finally ditched spying on him from buildings, and instead decided to follow him on the ground. This eventually brought her near the Eiffel tower, where she surveyed her surroundings intently for any suspicious activity. About ten minutes after Shepherd reached his destination, several black SUV's pulled up next to him. A teen with a black suit exited the vehicle, promptly approaching Rachel's target. When the two finally came face to face, she could see their mouths moving, but couldn't hear anything due to their far proximity. Fixing this problem, the blonde girl triggered her sensitive ear piece to hear the conversation between the mysterious men.

"Is anyone following you?"

Shepherd chuckled ,"of course not, you are far too paranoid." Un-amused, the young man in the black suit began tugging him towards the SUV. Realizing that she was about to lose her target, she wasted no time giving second thoughts to her split-second decision. Rachel wouldn't lose her target that easily for she had a trick up her sleeve, literally. They were just about to enter the truck when Rachel intentionally bumped into Shepherd from behind, her arm brushing up against the back of his shirt. "Sorry sir!" she said innocently. He smiled back, "No worries, my lady." The other teen in the black suit glared at her menacingly, catching Shepard's attention. "Would you lay off a little? Learn how to respect women then maybe one of these day's you'll actually get one." His bodyguard grunted, before finally entering the vehicle.

"Sorry about that, important business."

"I see, well what kind of business?" she replied back with a little intimacy, biting down on her bottom lip. If it's one thing she's learned as a espionage agent, is that all bad guys had a weak spot for girls.

He rose his brows, scanning every inch of her body . "You're a pretty girl, but I'm in a rush, later." He winked at her, and she smirked back before he promptly entered the SUV. Too her astonishment he didn't reveal any sort of information to her like most villains did when she got a little flirty. The blonde spy was actually a little relieved he didn't fall for her little trap; she hated playing seductive, especially with the thought of Nigel looming around.

Oh well, it didn't matter anyway. Unbeknownst to the boy, Rachel had planted a tiny tracking device on him.

* * *

What a great place to have a meeting, who would've expected them to meet right in front of the newly constructed European Federation parliament! If these guys were trying to be secretive, they were doing a horrible job doing it.

She was spying on them with a pair of special issued binoculars on a far off building just to the right of parliament. It was tedious job, but she was used to it. Rachel waited for hours on end before another black SUV pulled up, this time with Revisionist flags on the front. Jack pot she thought.

First two bodyguards came out, followed by what appeared to be a highly valued individual, a government official she assumed. Now a days, with the arrival the anti-age virus, world governments were now ran by teenagers and children alike, which indicated that even though physical aging had ceased, maturity did not.

The unidentified person walked up to Shepherd, shaking his hands before he went straight into a conversation.

"So, I'm assuming everything is going well?" the person in question asked. "Yeah, yeah, I've already began silencing any political objections... besides, you have nothing to worry about, I'm the one who helped you guys take over the European Federation government after all." The Revisionist party member smiled, "Indeed you have, but this is only the first phase of our plan." Shepherd sighed, revealing frustration that even Rachel picked up, "I know, so why'd you arrange this meeting anyway?"

The mysterious individual ever so elegantly scanned his surrounding, ensuring that no one was around, "Our _higher ups _have informed us that we should pick up the pace, it's only a matter of time before their arrival." Rachel was stumped, what did he mean by higher ups? And before who's arrival? She increased the volume on her eavesdropper.

"Are you serious? Like I said, we can only work with what we have. I don't want to do anything that would make the Kids Next Door anymore suspicious than they already are. Besides your in a higher position of authority than I am!" The mysterious teen rubbed the back of his head, giving a clue that Shepherd had a point. "Just make contact with _them,_ for now I'm currently in the process of passing a bill that will ramp up the production of the European Federation's armed forces which should provide us with the logistics needed to maintain the main invasion force when they arrive."

Shepherd frowned, "their weapons are far to primitive compared to what we should have. Besides are you sure this will even work?" The other teen kept a straight face, returning to sit in the backseat of the SUV, "I'm sure it'll work, just remember the plan. Remember, we're not expected to totally eliminate them, just to make things easier for when the main invasion forces come. Besides, when our brothers finally arrive, they won't stand a chance..." The SUV was about to drive off when Shepherd asked one final question.

"Wait, how am I suppose to make contact anyway? You tell me to talk to our superiors, yet leave me without anything to communicate to them with!" The Revisionist party member threw him an alien looking device that was shaped as a pentagon and appeared to be flat and metallic. Shepherd nodded, and the mysterious finally teen drove off.

Rachel was bewildered on the information that was just unintentionally given to her, their conversation was so vague, and so confusing. Who and most importantly what were they talking about? She packed up her equipment and headed back to her suite for further analysis.

* * *

She was up the whole night, repeating the conversation over and over again until she knew it almost totally by heart. This mission lacked action, but it's importance drove her none the less. The blonde agent wanted to know what in the world were they talking about. They kept referring to some higher authority, someone even than them. She knew the Revisionist had an agenda, but she couldn't help but feel that there something much bigger, something much more threatening than what has been revealed.

One phrase stuck in her mind the most, "_I'm sure it'll work, just remember the plan. Remember, we're not expected to totally eliminate them, just to make things easier for when the main invasion forces come. Besides, when our brothers finally arrive, they won't stand a chance..." _Who were they about to eliminate and why? Rachel didn't want to make any assumptions, but she had a feeling this enemy they were referring to was the Kids Next Door. But without any substantial evidence, she couldn't say for sure. Also what did they mean by 'main invasion forces' and 'brothers'? Perhaps this meant they would make an alliance with another country, but still, why would they refer to them as brothers? She honestly didn't know who they were referring to, but she was determined to find out.

_Incoming Transmission._ Her communication buzzed.

She accepted the call, which revealed a holographic image of Maurice. "Rachel we need you back at base, ASAP, your being redeployed."

"Why Sir?" Maurice looked like he wasn't in the questioning mood, which made her wish she didn't ask. "There's been several developments in the Middle East, including the bombing of a KND embassy in the area. Now we believe that there may be a connection between this attack and the Revisionists," he briefly paused, reading off incoming data, "intelligence suggests the plotter of this attack to be an 'Alam Rashir', he's responsible for a number of insurrections and terrorist attacks. Now we know this isn't something up your alley but your assignment is to track and capture him alive for questioning. I'll send you more information about him in a bit."

Rachel wasn't exactly thrilled at this change of plans. Sure, she could see why they wanted to send her to investigate in the Middle East, but she believed that the source of everything lie here, in Europe. She attempted one last thing to try to sway Maurice from redeploying her, "But I believe I'm onto something. Here I'll relay my findings to you." She turned on her lap top and sent him her findings. He briefly scanned it, and expressed a face of curiosity, "Hmm... interesting, but that'll have to wait, besides maybe you may find something that ties in with the Revisionists in the Middle East. Now return back to base for debriefing, Numbuh 9 out."

Rachel sighed, the new European Federation was up to something, and she was determined to find out what. But for now, that would have to wait.

* * *

The sound AK-47's letting loose into the air echoed throughout the city. It was a hostile situation, and the Kids Next Door was careful not to escalate things further.

The huge mob crowded around the charred remains of the Kids Next Door embassy, cheering and wailing as they paraded around the building. The crowd was letting out a very threatening cry in unision, one that would haunt even the highest ranking members of the KND.

"Death to the Kids Next Door! Death to the Kids Next Door!" their voices were carried by the smoke of the burning flames. In the middle of the crowd was a KND flag, which was violently torched and left on the ground to burn.

A black cloaked figure stands from a rooftop overlooking the crowd. He slowly takes out a communicator from his pocket, and makes a call to his contact in Europe. "The second phase of the plan has been set in motion, Shadow out."

The contact in Europe watches on television as reports of uprisings against the Kids Next Door rapidly spread throughout the Middle East. To the Kids Next Door, this may appear to be random acts of violence, completely unrelated to each other. But truth be told all of this was planned, and this was just the beginning of an elaborate scheme.

The news broadcast stops, and the TV shuts off, followed by a brief silence. The screen turns on again, this time revealing nothing but a bright static light. "Has destabilization begun?" a voice from the TV asks. The teen merely nods, knowing that at this very moment they were observing him. Why his superiors insisted on making such mysterious appearances, he will never know.

"Very well. Keep up the good work, and ensure that there is little resistance when we finally arrive..."

* * *

Maurice sure wasn't kidding when he said that there had been 'several developments' in the area. The streets she could swear were basically war zones. Burning tires, burned vehicles, and people running around shooting guns into the air didn't make for the most stable environment. She had to move around swiftly and undetected if the mission was going to succeed. Like always, she was alone, carrying only what was completely necessary.

The blonde spy was sitting on a rooftop of one the buildings, deeming that anywhere lower was unsafe.

Intelligence had already given Rachel two possible locations of where this 'Alam Rashir' could be possibly located. She grabbed her tablet from out of her backpack, quickly turning it on. She activated a feature which gave her a 3D holographic view of the city. If TND intelligence was right, he was in one of these buildings. Now all she had to do was decide which one she was going to infiltrate first. Rachel looked at the data of each potential hideout, and decided to infiltrate the one closest to her which was much more smaller. But that's about all the information she had on it, she lacked intel on how guarded it was, and whether or not it was possibly rigged with explosives. In a matter of fact, the same went with the other building, but she was a spy after all so taking risks were things she was accustomed to.

The first building was about two miles north of her location. Not too far, but she had to take into account the hostilities of the people below her. She would stick out to them like a sore thumb, even when wearing her all black spy gear. The ex-Supreme Leader would have to play it safe by travelling on rooftop and sneaking past anyone, even children.

She swiftly navigated the roof tops, heading closer and closer to her destination. Rachel repeated this process several times, now less than a mile away from her target. _I need a break_, she thought to herself, breathing heavily. She sat down near the edge of the building, staring at her destination in the distance. Whoever this Alam guy was, she was going to bring him in. Her thoughts were interrupted when a door leading up to the rooftops behind her quickly opened, causing the girl to quickly dangle on the side of the building. Luckily for her, there was no one in the alley way below. She pulled herself slightly up to see who had caused the commotion.

She counted three men, all armed with automatic weapons. Except these weren't just random civilians carrying a gun. They appeared to be special forces of some sort, but she couldn't figure out of what origin. Now why would they be out here, and most importantly where were they from?

"All clear Widow 1?" his radio echoed all the way to Rachel's ear. "All clear HQ," the teen who appeared to be the squad leader responded back, signaling his mean to head back downstairs. The three young men left, closing the door in the process which caused Rachel to breath in a sigh of relief. That was too close for comfort. She yanked herself up back onto the rooftop, headed to one of the buildings she believed Alam Rashir was in.

* * *

"Supreme Leader, you may want to take a look at this," Patton came up to Abby, dropping on her desk several documents. Too Abby, this appeared serious, and judging by the expressions on the former drill sergeant's face, it wasn't good.

She briefly scanned the files, but she got the main idea of it all. It was very unnerving to her, especially since she just recently became the Supreme Leader.

The revolts weren't just limited to the Middle East now. All around the world, from South America, to Asia, and to Africa, people were violently protesting against the Kids Next Door. Riots and full on social unrests was spreading like wildfire across the globe, and what a coincidence, all of this happening the minute the Revisionists entered the picture.

"Do you suspect that all of this is perhaps planned by the new EFCT?" Patton wasn't sure how to answer, he was just the messenger after all. "I'm not sure, perhaps you should ring up Maurice about that." Abby sighed, giving Patton an order just before he left her office.

"Put the Kids Next Door on full alert, and deploy two of our Gihugacarriers to the Middle East and put them on stand by. Show the world we mean business."

The situation was getting dire, and Numbuh 5 hoped that this course of action would help alleviate the escalating violence that was taking place around the world.

* * *

She spied on the building, carefully scanning up and down it's perimeter. No guards at all, which could mean several things. First, perhaps the building was booby trapped, two, they left to a different location, possibly another building, or three, they knew she was coming and the mission was already compromised before it even began. Regardless, she had to go in and check.

As she crept onto the side of the building to enter one of the windows, she noticed that the entrance to the building was strangely opened. Weird, she thought, what kind of wanted terrorist leaves the entrance to his hiding place wide opened? Dismissing her question, she hopped into the empty room. Everything appeared normal to her, but this was just one room out of the several. Then, she heard voices coming from outside the room.

It must've been a trap! The door barged opened, followed by several flash bang grenades that ignited several seconds after they hit the ground. Her vision went black and all she could hear was an intense ringing in her ears. Then she was violently tackled to the ground.

* * *

"So what do you think the enemy's planning?" Naomi asked Nigel as she hurriedly scooped a spoonful of ice cream. Oddly enough, even though they part of an intergalactic and interspecies organization, all of them seemed to share the same tastes. Contrary to what they were all expecting, many of their galactic comrades were basically human, and those who were not possessed only minor differences such as brighter eye color, being slightly taller, or some other small feature. Only a few species were radically different, but even then they fit right in with everyone else.

The two were in the cruisers large mess hall, and were seated near a large window that gave them a beautiful view of space. It was somewhat busy today, but many of operatives were either on missions, or too pre-occupied with paperwork. The sound of utensils and cooking filled their ears, a sound that was similar to the mess hall of the Moon Base. Who would've thought that the GKND would be similar to their Earthly counterpart.

Taking a bite out of what resembled a burger, he replied late too her question. "I really don't know, Infinity was so vague on our briefing all I know is that we're going to some random planet to track any strange activity on it." He bit hard on his burger, showing his frustration with this whole thing.

Naomi smiled, revealing her white and perfect teeth. "True, but I say don't stress out over it, we'll find out whatever the enemy's doing. Right Nigel?"

"Yeah... I guess," he sighed back, his voice filled with disappointment.

The brunette got up from her seat to sit next to her bald friend. She tenderly rubbed his back, but that didn't seem to alleviate any stressful thoughts Nigel was feeling at this point.

"Awwh, like I said, don't worry about." Nigel swiveled his head to face her. "It's not just that..." he switched his vision to the window, admiring the beautiful stars that lit up the otherwise pitch darkness of space. Sure, he was stressed out about the mission they were about to go on and Infinity's reluctance to freely give them much needed information, but that wasn't all that that bugged his mind. He couldn't stop thinking about that blonde girl he left back on Earth. The stars reminded him so much of her, especially since that was the last thing they saw together before they were separated.

"Hello, Earth to Nigel, are you there Nigel?" she couldn't help but notice his hypnotized state as he stared blankly into the forever night sky. After several seconds, he finally broke out of his trance. "We're not on Earth thank you very much," He defended back. Instead of laughing, the girl produced a face of deep concern. "Seriously are you ok? Is the mission bugging you that much? I know Infinity could be a little secretive sometimes but still."

The British boy took a deep breath, "it's not that actually..." Naomi perked up, if that wasn't it, what else could it be she thought. "Then what is it? You can tell me Nigel, you know that."

Deciding that she was right, he told her upfront what was on his mind, "Well, I've been thinking about Rachel, it's been nearly a year since the last time we saw each other, and I don't know... I just miss her."

Naomi scooted closer, "I understand. Remember your not the only one who left someone behind." her face was solemn, and Nigel knew right then and there she was thinking about her companion. She never really talked about him though, in a matter of fact, Nigel didn't even know his name. Realizing that this was the perfect time to find out more about her, he decided to ask her questions about this person; strictly out of curiosity of course.

"Say, you never really talked about this 'boy', heck, I don't even know his name!"

The brunette laughed, "Well that's because you never asked! Well, his name is 'Michael', code numbuh 510, did you know him?" Nigel shook his head.

"Unfortunately no, say maybe you should talk about him, _after all, talking about our loved ones while we're away does help us feel closer to them_." Noticing how he used a phrase she told him earlier, she laughed. "Someone has good memory! Well, he was a pretty shy person, always so formal and orderly." She glared at the stars, trying to remember more attributes about him, "and he always had a bunch of girls after him! It was honestly annoying, heck, I nagged him constantly for that. I knew it wasn't his fault, but still." she paused, Nigel knew deep inside she was sad, but she wasn't the type of girl who would start crying or even feel sorry for herself. _Just like Rachel._

"Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 410, report to shuttle 25!" the voice on the microphone traveled throughout the mess hall, interrupting their conversation. The two looked out through the window again, they were just above the planet they were assigned to.

"Well, looks like we're here at our stop, you ready Naomi?"

She smirked, "Of course."

* * *

The blonde spy could hear muffled cries, but her ears were still ringing uncontrollably. She felt the person who tackled her let go, and she assumed that at this point her cover was blown. Her vision began to return along with her hearing, transforming the sound of muffled cries into complete yells.

"Are you an idiot?! Did you realize what you just did!" the teen dressed in an all tan uniform covered by a Kevlar bullet proof vest rubbed the top of his head, "well how the hell was I supposed to know! All I heard was someone come in, so I assumed that someone had found out about us!" the teen waved in protest.

The blond yelling faced palmed himself and shook his head. "Ugh whatever." he turned to Rachel.

"McKenzie, you alright?"

She recognized the voice, and the face "Dickson? What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Maurice sent me, and for the same reason as you."

She put one of her hands on the ground in an attempt to get up, strange she thought, Maurice never told her anything about Chad and a team joining the search. "Alam Rashir right?" Chad nodded. "You know what's funny, your the so called best espionage agent of both the KND and TND, yet this idiot managed to hear you. Guess being Supreme Leader has really done a toll on your spying skills huh McKenzie?" She really couldn't stand Chad at times, even before he was Supreme Leader he was cocky and arrogant.

"Funny you should say that, because everyone still thinks your a traitor back at the Moon Base." Now that shut him up. Deep inside, she was savoring her victory, there was no way he had a comeback against that.

"Whatever." was all he could say. He was still bitter that Nigel Uno was chosen to be in the GKND instead of him.

"So you got anything on this guy?" she quickly changed the subject. Chad shook his head, despite their bitter relationship, the mission came first.

"No, but I'm pretty sure he's in the other building... hold up." his communicator was buzzing, and he stepped out of the room to answer it.

She was left alone with four of his team members, all wearing the same uniform as the boy he yelled at. It was awkward to say the least.

Chad stepped back in the room, "We're headed back to base, so this mission depends on you McKenzie." And then without further delay, he signaled his squad to exit the room, leaving Rachel alone.

Feeling her communicator vibrate, she quickly answered it, revealing a holographic Maurice on screen. "How's finding Alam Rashir? Any luck yet?" Rachel shook her head. Realizing that now was the time to confirm Chad's presence in the area, she asked the question, already predicting an answer. "Not yet, I suspect he's in the next building. Say did you send Numbuh 274 here along with a team?" Maurice stared back perplexed. "Um no, why do you ask?"

"Are you sure? Because I just ran into him and he said you sent him." Rachel was utterly confused by this point.

"No... I never deployed him, now that's odd. I'll ask him later, maybe he's on some top secret business again. You know him, always shady." He cleared his throat before resuming again. "Also, Alam Rashir's little uprising isn't limited to the Middle East anymore, it appears that he's went global now. Hell, he just hacked into our systems like ten minutes ago and broadcasted a worldwide live stream to get his message across. You better take this guy into our custody, he's dangerous and who knows what else he's capable of."

Rachel nodded. "Understood sir."

The Director of the TND smirked. "You are one of our best agents, I know you'll come through." she closed the communicator, ending the transmission. Now things were definitely strange, she knew something was up, but couldn't quite put her finger on it. But one thought kept bothering her; Chad being in the area without direct orders from Maurice was definitely out of place. Realizing that she was wasting time pondering about Chad, she diverted her attention back to the mission at hand.

He had to be in the other building, and this time, she wouldn't have the luxury of running into friendlies.

* * *

**_...10 minutes earlier..._**

"Hacking Kids Next Door communication networks now, Alam Rashir your on in 5...4...3...2...1"

In an undisclosed location, camera's began filming live, their point of interest; a teen with black hair and jet black shades who was wearing green and brown camouflaged clothes. Behind him, a bullet ridden Kids Next Door flag.

The large screen's in New York's Time Square broadcasted the teen's face, catching the attention of the entire populace. This same image was also streamed to every major city, KND tree house, and base around the world. His figure sent shivers up and down Numbuh 5's spine, it greatly disturbed her how he was able to hack into their networks at will.

Alam Rashir's cold glare stared through the screen, directly at the KND global command. "Greetings citizens of the KND, and it's allies, I am sorry to interrupt your daily routines, I assure you this message will be short and... to the point." His voice was deep and commanding, and sounded like it had a false sense of righteousness and justice in it.

"This message is directed at the Kids Next Door and it's highest branches of command. Now I'm sure that at this current moment they are panicking, scrambling to find out how did a terrorist like me single handedly hack into the systems of a world superpower. Imagine, the leaders of the most powerful force on Earth, trembling in fear as the world around them falls apart. I have already proved how vulnerable you are, with the embassy bombing being my first example." Numbuh 5 and all her advisors sat, in total awe at the event unfolding. He continued, his gaze never turning away from the screen, "You see, the Kids Next Door is full of greed, full of deception, and full of lies... And I assure you, this season of terror is far from over."

His face remained serious, and he hauntingly turned his head towards Numbuh 5.

"Supreme Leader, I will end this broadcast with one final message. This is only the first stage of what's to come..."

...Transmission Interrupted...

* * *

_**A/N: Make sure to review guys, it motivates me to update faster! **_

_**See you all next update!**_


	5. Close Call

_**Chapter 5: Close Call**_

...Connection Re-Established...

The teen steadily but slowly crept down the empty hall ways of the large space cruiser, careful not to rudely awake any of the operatives sleeping away through the endless night. He didn't want to disturb any of the crew members and soldiers on board, for they got particularly angry when their few hours of sleep were interrupted.

The blond was running late for his meeting, and he really didn't want to hear it from Infinity, especially since he was already going to get an earful from the director of the TND for going on an 'unauthorized mission'. Unbeknownst to most people back on Earth, Chad was also a Galactic Kids Next Door agent, which was different from being a full fledged operative. In fact, the job of an agent was probably far more dangerous compared to a regular operative, for usually agents were required to work undercover on world's that were still oblivious to an intergalactic KND, or sent on espionage missions against the enemy. And to top it all off, agents weren't entitled to the same perks as operatives, making it a rather thankless job. Perhaps the only positive thing about the role was that eventually, assuming the individual proved him or herself, they would be granted full admittance into the GKND, making them an official operative.

Truth be told, Chad wasn't really playing a double agent, but rather living a double life, and it was getting more difficult to separate the two as things continuously deteriorated on Earth and in space. But in all honesty, Chad didn't care what people labeled him, for he knew that he was doing a much needed service to expand the GKND cause, which extended far more than fighting for the rights of children.

Standing in front of the entrance to an office, he punched in the password on the holographic keyboard, opening the doors in front of him.

"Numbuh 274, what is the status on Earth?" a voice travelled from behind a desk.

"Not good Infinity, not good at all..." the blonde muttered

"How so?" Infinity questioned.

"Well for starters, Numbuh 362 ran into me when she shouldn't have." He grunted, if Rachel hadn't spotted him, things would've been so much easier for the distressed teen.

"I see, well that shouldn't be a problem for now, I'm sure Numbuh 9 will understand. But what are the recent developments on Earth?"

"The Splinter Cell there is stronger than we thought, hell they already took over the European Federation of Children and Teens, giving them enough support and man power to prepare for their _big day_ as well as allow them to sustain an occupation for after the final invasion comes, and to make matters worse they've already began destabilizing the Kids Next Door by using some terrorist organization or something. I tried to hunt down the terrorist leader Alam Rashir for questioning, but I couldn't locate him at all, it's like he's a ghost or something."

"Splinter Cell agents are like that, either they're in plain site like the ones controlling the EFCT, or hidden in the shadows like this Alam Rashir." Infinity responded before becoming silent in thought as he examined the issue.

"It appears that the situation is worse than we thought, it'd best to try to contain this plot from the Earth Kids Next Door while the GKND figures out a solution, you are dismissed Numbuh 274." Infinity couldn't risk revealing the GKND to Earth, the people there simply weren't ready. Plus, it was in his as well as the GKND's central command's best interests to keep this a secret.

"Why do they want Earth so bad? They're going through a grip load of trouble to capture just one tiny planet, like seriously." Chad wanted to know, actually he had the _right to know_.

"That information is classified Numbuh 274, now you are dismissed."

Knowing that there was no way he was going to be able to get any sort of information from Infinity once something was marked as 'classified', he exited the room. Chad at this point was getting fed up with all these cover ups and all these secrets, and the fact that he had to balance out this life with his normal TND operative one back on Earth didn't make things any easier. The issue at hand was personal to Chad, especially since his home world was targeted by the enemy, who weren't exactly known to be friendly.

But Chad knew that no matter how secretive Infinity was trying to be, the truth would eventually come out, especially when it involved a plot this big.

But in the mean time, this was just the calm before the storm.

* * *

_Great, this place is crawling with bad guys._

After jumping from roof top to roof top, the blonde unfortunately found herself in a difficult situation. From the outside, the place looked nearly impossible to infiltrate without alerting one of the many guards walking on it's balconies. There were a total of four balconies, with one each side, and two guards stationed on each balcony. It wouldn't have been a problem if there positions didn't give them a total 360 degree view of the place. And there was no telling how many more body guards Alam Rashir had inside the place,_ if_ he was in fact here.

She scouted the area, looking at potential ways to crawl into the building undetected. After about what seemed like an hour, she found a suitable way to get in. The guards, even though they had a perfect vantage point, overlooked one tiny thing. They neglected to scout out that there were several blind spots on the first floor from the balcony, and that there was only a single guard in charge of patrolling the entire area. Now all she had to do was time it perfectly, and wait for the guard to be totally out of view before she snuck in through one of the windows. Going in through the front door was not an option, and she avoided doing so for, well, obvious reasons.

Rachel tracked the guard until he was finally out of sight. The blonde spy then swiftly jumped onto the ground and glanced around to make sure no one spotted her. It was all clear, and the alleyway she landed in was completely empty. Checking her surroundings one more time, she quietly crawled through a small window and found herself in a bed room. In the middle was a extravagant king sized bed, and the ground and ceiling were remarkably elegant, for the floor floor was a soft red carpet, and the ceiling was a pearl white with a glass chandelier hanging on top. From the outside, the building appeared to be like any of others in the area; plain and in some cases in need of great repair. It almost angered her how nice this place was, while people were starving in the street, this Alam Rashir guy was living in total comfort.

This guy was no freedom fighter, he was just a crook vouching for power.

She disregarded her own political thoughts, realizing that sneaking into the hideout of the world's most wanted and feared terrorist was far too easy to infiltrate.

_Way too easy._

From the outside, it appeared to be heavily guarded, but even so, why would the guards overlook such an obvious blindspot? Rachel paused for a minute, taking out her silenced pistol, walking around the room to make sure it was clear. After carefully examining her surroundings, she quietly headed towards the large door. She wasn't going to take any chances getting caught, so she took out a snake camera would give her a view of what lay on the other side.

The blonde spy slowly pushed it under the door, taking out her small tablet that was connected to the device. She turned it to the right, and then to the left; no one. Rachel waited several minutes just in case someone came by, but nothing.

She took a deep breath. Rachel wasn't getting a good feeling about this mission, none of it was adding up. If Alam Rashir was indeed here, why the hell did it appeared to have a poorly guarded interior?

Taking a risk, she creaked opened the door, pointing her gun outwards as she walked into the hallway, which appeared bare and spacious. Rachel finally stumbled upon a set of stairs that seemed to lead into a basement of sorts. As she walked down the stairs, an eerie feeling crept upon her.

Something wasn't right about this place.

She arrived in the basement, which had cameras pointed at a bullet ridden Blue Kids Next Door flag, which was large, and had the typical "KND" logo in white surrounded by golden leaves. The flag was obviously tarnished, and in front of it was a lone chair.

Apparently this is where Alam's grand appearance was filmed, but where was everyone? And most importantly where was he? She heard a beeping sound echoing throughout the large underground room, catching her attention.

The sound appeared to be coming from behind the flag, but what was it? Rachel crept silently towards the commotion of the sound until she arrived at her intended destination. She walked closer and closer to the disturbance, until she was sure she located the it's source. It seemed to be coming from a box of some sort.

When she reached for the box to open it, she noticed white lettering on the cover which was sloppily written.

But eventually she made out the message.

_ ...You'll never find me..._

Rachel hurriedly opened the box, only to be rudely awakened by the hostile device that was located inside.

* * *

"Maybe we should call back up Nigel!" Naomi yelled as both of them gave chase to their target through the alien-like city streets. The buildings above were miles high, and many of them appeared almost organic. They were sent to a planet called "Impianto", one of the systems that their enemy had targeted. The beings that lived on this planet were sort of strange looking, almost plant like, but they were intelligent none the less, and several of their kind were members of the GKND. Luckily for them, the splinter cell here had been largely unsuccessful, and the Impianto Kids Next Door was already cracking down on it's members after they tried to overthrow them and the local planetary government by initializing a military coup.

It was a fortunate situation, but they knew that this wasn't the same case on the dozen's of other star systems their enemy had planned to take over.

Impianto was just one of the thousands of planet's that made of the GKND Republic, which was ran by an elected set of government officials that made up it's senate, and just like the Kids Next Door on Earth, a Supreme Leader, or in this case a Supreme Chancellor. Each of the planet's had a local KND and government, basically making each of them planetary states, but the central government held the ultimate authority. The GKND also possessed a constitution that guaranteed the rights of it's citizens, but this had been unfortunately largely nullied for hundreds of years due to the ongoing war. It's capital, Afthonia, was a lush and green planet, characterized by clear blue skies, a cool vibrant temperature, and beautiful sprawling temperate forests that resembled many of those located in North America. All these characteristics made Afthonia the perfect place to make as the center of the GKND Republic.

"You kidding me? We almost got him!" Nigel swiftly ran through the crowds of the plant like species, who were nearly double their size. The hooded figure they were chasing was about the same size as Nigel, and was equally as agile. The only thing they knew about him was that he was human, or rather, human-like. They had been chasing him for nearly thirty minutes, and even though they were gaining on him, it was almost certain that he'd use deadly force when they finally caught up.

The hooded figure turned into an alley way, and Naomi had a gut-feeling that they were getting set up. Despite this, Nigel still blindly ran into the alley way in pursuit of their target. Naomi sighed, she always questioned his actions, but she followed him none the less. Besides, who was going to save his rear end if he got into some sort of trouble.

They ran into the empty city alley way, sprinting faster and faster to catch up with their target. Aside from the seemingly moving greenish walls and plants growing everywhere, the alley way was not much different from those on the city's of Earth; polluted, mostly empty, and narrow, a perfect spot for an ambush. The hooded figure turned again, this time into a somewhat larger alleyway, but still pretty narrow. Naomi was certain that this a trap, and her fears were confirmed when they ran into what appeared to be a dead end.

"What the? I was right behind him!" Ignoring the boy's ranting, Naomi scanned the many roof tops and balconies that overlooked their position, when a plasma beam rudely skyrocketed passed her. They were in some deep trouble now, especially since they were being fired at by plasma based weaponry. Despite being significantly more advanced than the Kids Next Door on Earth, projectile based weaponry were still the most common tools of war used by the GKND and their enemy, as it was deemed the most cost effective and efficient to produce and use. Lasers and Plasma weapons were secondary choices that required massive amounts of energy to use, making them impractical to mass produce into rifles and other small arms carried by infantry. Instead, this technology was often reserved for tanks, aircraft, and large space cruisers or battleships.

However, there were exceptions to this rule.

Despite being largely inefficient to produce, there were still a small amount of plasma and laser based infantry weapons in circulation. But those were mainly reserved only for the most highly trained and highly elite soldiers of the galaxy, making Naomi even more concerned.

Dazed by the initial close call, she instinctively pulled Nigel to cover, who was at this point, mindlessly shooting back at an unseen enemy.

"Are you crazy?! Your going to get yourself killed one day I swear!" She yelled as she loaded the small submachine gun she was carrying on her back. The gun was simple in design, and even though it fired bullets, it spewed them out at a high velocity with precision accuracy, making it a deadly weapon of choice.

She kneeled up, but instantly crouched back down when she realized that there was more than one person firing down on them. "Damn it, we're pinned down Nigel... Nigel, Nigel?" She looked beside her, only to find that her partner was gone.

Naomi didn't have to search far, for her partner was already charging straight into the building where the enemy was entrenched. The brunette sighed, why was he always so reckless and stupid?

* * *

The blonde ran down the corridors, frantically searching for a way out. The last time she checked the clock on the bomb, it said five minutes, and now she was sure it had been at least three. She had to find a way out now or she would be history.

Too her dismay, all the windows and doors were locked, and at this point she knew that this whole thing was obviously a set up. Rachel couldn't believe it, for the first time in her spying career she had been outsmart and trapped, and she walked right into it. Whoever this guy or whoever he was working with was, they knew what they were doing, that much was apparent.

She sprinted towards a window, desperately trying to open it. It was only after five seconds did she realize that the window's were made out of glass, which meant that she could easily break out. It confused her how she didn't figure this out to begin with, perhaps she really was out of shape like Chad said. Wasting no time, she brought up her pistol and shot the window, spewing glass all over the floor.

Relieved, she jumped out of the window and onto the ground below. Luckily for her, she was on the first floor, which made managing the impact of her jump much more bearable. Literally seconds after she exited the structure, the whole interior of the building exploded, causing the force of the blast to exit through it's doors and windows, raining shrapnel down on the blonde girl.

She may have escaped the building, but her ordeal was far from over.

Almost immediately after she landed on the ground, her position was peppered by small arms fire, forcing her to take cover behind an abandoned car. There was no way she'd be able to adequately defend herself with just a pistol, which made her glad that she always carried a special issued M4A1 assault rifle on her back. The rifle was specifically adjusted to Rachel's standards, armed with a much more advanced ACOG sight that calculated bullet drop and wind current, an extended magazine size that gave her additional bullets, a tactical light for dark areas, a fore grip to get a better handle on the gun, and a laser pointer for additional accuracy.

Taking small shots back at the enemy that was closing in on her position, she decided to radio in the TND to get her the hell out of here.

"Numbuh 362 to TND command post, please respond! Taking fire from enemy small arms, requesting immediate extraction!"

"This is Numbuh 9, hear you loud and clear, have you apprehended the target?'

"Negative Command! It was a set up! They knew we were coming!"

The transmission went eerily quiet before Maurice responded back.

"Read you loud and clear, get to the center of the city for extraction, choppers inbound ETA 15 minutes. Be there or we leave you behind."

"Copy that, Numbuh 362 out!"

She silenced her ear piece and unloaded half her clip at her pursuers, who were now posted on roof tops and behind parked cars. They were wearing black keffiyah's that wrapped around their faces, and surprisingly standardized all black uniforms and armor, highly unusual for the typical terrorist. Their maneuvers were also very complex, hinting out the possibility that perhaps these guys were trained by or even were part of some type of special forces.

These were no rag tag insurgents, these were well-trained and well-armed black ops or mercenaries of some sort. This made things a whole lot complicated for Rachel, and it got even worse when she heard the sound of a pick-up truck closing in on her position. The truck stopped, and began firing its mounted heavy machine gun directly onto Rachel's position. She could hear the sound of bullets pummeling the opposite end of the car, and she cringed at thought of getting hit by one of those massive shells. Her situation was getting dire by the secod, and to make matters even more complicated, the chopper would be arriving in less than fifteen minutes. If she wasn't there soon, they'd leave her behind, condemning her to certain death.

* * *

Nigel barged through the building, the distinct firing sound of plasma rifles ringing through out it's halls. He had to do something quick, or it was almost guaranteed both of them would die. Cautiously, or rather _recklessl_y, he ran up the stairs towards the second floor of the alien like building, holding his rifle in front of him. The sound of gun fire seemed to get louder, and he concluded that the perpetrators were holding up in the room just down the hall. The British boy sprinted towards the source of the gun fire, kicking down the door in the process. In the room Nigel counted a total of six teens, but he didn't hesitate to unload his whole entire clip into the heavily group. To his disbelief, the rounds were literally absorbed by the teen's armored vests, shocking the GKND operative. That just wasn't possible, especially with the high tech rifle Nigel was using!

The teens smirked, and were ready to fire back before the hooded figure they were chasing emerged from the group. "Oh, if it isn't the infamous Nigel. It's pathetic how your regarded as the best, yet you stupidly ran right into my hands. What an idiot."

Before Nigel could say a word, his body was suddenly paralyzed by an unknown force. In his peripheral vision, he could spot two devices planted on the wall that emitted sound frequency's in a way that would cause his muscles to tense up.

"Ah, ah, let's not try to make any moves now." The hooded figure teased.

"I expected better from you Nigel Uno, especially from such a decorated operative such as yourself." Nigel cringed at the thought, now he was stuck by simple trap, and he ran straight into it.

The hooded figure slowly walked behind him, pulling out a shimmering knife that was covered in alien looking writing and glowing a dim blue. "Funny, you can escape the grips of death, manage to dodge, hell even _destroy _our most advanced weaponry, yet here you are now, about to die to a weapon that has been used since the beginning of time..." his voice wasn't intimidating at all really, but the message it contained sent a shiver up Nigel's spine.

For the first time in Nigel's life, he was actually scared.

This was it for him, this truly was the end. He knew he should've taken Naomi's advice, but it was far too late for that. But for as of right now, the only thing that he could think about was Rachel, and nothing else. It hurt him knowing that she would possibly never learn of his ill-fate demise, and that she would be waiting for someone who was already dead. Nigel could care less about what happened to him at this point, but it tore him apart knowing that Rachel would be paying the price in the end.

As his thoughts loomed over his blonde lover, he prepared for the inevitable.

Suddenly, a bright light from the windows beamed on the group of heavily armed teens. The hostiles began focusing their fire on the ship hovering outside of the building, but their low powered plasma weapons had no affect.

"What the hell?!" the hooded figure exclaimed as he was shot twice in the leg and once in arm.

Then much to Nigel's surprise, the device that froze him in place were deactivated by gunfire, freeing him from his paralyzed state.

"Nigel duck!" a voice from the entrance of the room broke out.

Instinctively, he dropped to the ground. He turned to the entrance of the door, only to find that his savior was none other than Serena. "Told you we should've called back up!"

Just as she said that, Nigel could hear the sound of something powering up, followed by a barrage of shrapnel filling the room, destroying anything in it's path. The bullets tore through the group of teens, killing them instantly.

After what seemed like an eternity, the mini guns from the helicopter looking craft stopped, allowing Serena and Nigel to finally stand back up on their feet.

"You ok Nigel?" She asked as she walked up to him.

Nigel was a little shaken, not from the flying bullets everywhere, but from his near death experience. If Serena hadn't gotten there when she did, he would've...

"Yeah I'm fine Naomi, thanks."

Nigel was suddenly caught off guard when the brunette pulled him into a tight hung. "I told you not to run off you idiot." She cackled under her own breath.

They heard chuckling from ones of the walls, it sounded like someone was almost mocking them. Nigel swiveled his attention toward the hooded figure, who was now immobilized from getting most if not all of his limbs shot.

"You'll never stop us."

Nigel picked him up by his collar, now up close and personal with the fugitive. He was humanoid, but he wasn't totally human, he could tell by the yellowish color his eyes were illuminating.

"Never stop what huh?"

"You'll see..." the teen smiled.

"There he is!" Another voice from behind them emerged. Both Serena and Nigel re-focused their vision back to the door, where several Impianto Kids Next Door and officials were standing.

"So I'm assuming you finally caught those dirty bastard's right?" one of the plant like figures questioned.

Nigel and Naomi nodded.

"Good work, I'll take it from here, Impainto will send thanks to the-" the official was cut off from another voice from behind.

"My apologies, but we'll be taking it from here." Infinity's voice rang out from behind a number of GKND soldiers who just arrived on the scene.

"If I'm not mistaken, since this criminal was caught on our planet, that means he is to be tried under Impianto law," the plant like humanoid protested, his voice full of harshness.

"You would be correct under any other circumstances, but this is an intergalactic matter, meaning it falls under the direct jurisdiction of the Galactic Kids Next Door Republic. And also as a member of the Republic, you are to abide under these rules according to Section 71 of the Constitution, giving the GKND government power over any of it's residing states during times of war."

Realizing that what Infinity spoke of was true, the Impianto official grunted, walking out of the room with the rest of his kind.

"Now that that's settled, what's going on with our dear friend here?" Infinity walked up to the immobilized, and barely conscious teen that lay against a wall. He searched his pockets, pulling out a small touch screen ID card.

"Ah, a splinter cell agent sent by our enemy, the Novochi Federation I see. And it appears that they have blacked out your name, sad really."

The Novochi Federation was an intergalactic body of planets ruled by a central totalitarian government, which gave little to no power to its surrounding territories. It's central capital, Novochi, was a tiny Earth-like planet ravaged by urban growth and industrialization, making it look like one giant city from space. The intergalactic power was only a federation by name, but in reality, it resembled that of an empire. The Novochi Federation placed an emphasis on the state over the individual, and constantly drilled into it's citizens that the only way to ensure the future survival and prosperity of Novochi was to continuously expand. Although the federation was authoritarian and conformist in nature, they had the habit of absorbing the best aspects and technology's of the civilizations it conquered, and assimilating it into it's own. However, despite it's dominance in the galaxy, it was not the first of its kind, in fact, the Novochi Federation was actually the successor of a stronger, much more powerful set of empires that put even the GKND Republic to shame. It was this prevalent past that made the Novochi Federation who they are today, and they would stop at nothing to ascend back to their former glory, no matter the costs.

The belief in Novochi superiority has also caused a number of atrocities across the galaxy, resulting in the deaths of millions, if not billions of lives on the planet's it invaded and ruled. That's not say the GKND Republic was free of any controversial actions, but it was clear that the Novochi Federation was an absolute enemy to anyone and everyone who wished to live free of tyranny. The only similarities the two shared was that everyone within their territories remained youthful, and lived to an exceptionally long age.

So for centuries now, the two superpowers of the galaxy had been locked in a bloody power struggle, with no clear winner in sight.

"Yeah... so what? Even if you stop us here nothing will stop our brothers from succeeding on other planets... once we capture Earth, it'll all be over, and Novochi will once again rule the galaxy." He muttered under his breath, just out of ear shot from Nigel and Naomi.

Infinity shuttered a bit, Earth was one of the few planets that were ruled by neither the Novochi Federation, the GKND Republic, or any other intergalactic power. They were instead, _supposed_ to remain neutral.

But unless the Novochi had discovered the location of the... no that couldn't be, it was only a legend.

* * *

"Numbuh 362 to command, where's the evac?!" Rachel yelled into her ear piece as she took cover behind a building wall.

"ETA one minute 362, stand by for extraction." Maurice radioed back.

"God damn it! Hurry the hell up they're everywhere!"

Rachel tried conserving what little ammunition she had left, shooting only short bursts just to scare off her pursuers. She had barely managed to get to the evacuation site, firing back at the enemy as she went. Too her amazement, her sharp shooting skills had improved significantly, which was apparent when she killed the driver and gunner of the truck that was bogging her down. But this was no time to flatter herself, for she knew that whoever was chasing her meant business.

A familiar rumbling suddenly filled Rachel's ear, it was the sound of jet engines from a SCAMPER landing down near her position. However, the SCAMPER's the KND used now a days over went a massive overhaul design and were radically different from their 2x4 predecessors.

The craft was now propelled by two high velocity jet engines equipped on newly added wings that could change from horizontal to vertical, allowing it to land and hover over tight spaces, as well as fly at high speeds. There was also an engine on the back for additional thrust. This new design was meant to meet the growing demand for a much more durable and agile all-purpose VTOL aircraft (Vertical Take off and Landing) to replace it's aging 2x4 SCAMPER fleet.

The SCAMPER landed, and its side door quickly slid open allowing a group of S.R.S.S.T (Special Retrieval and Surgical Strike Team) soldiers to provide covering fire for a retreating Rachel. The blonde girl was happy to see them, as the S.R.S.S.T was the most deadly and elite fighting force on the planet, and had been made more so ever since combining with the United States Navy SEALS. But Rachel was quite familiar working with this elite branch of the KND, especially since she worked with them during the past war and several missions after and before it.

"About time you guys showed up!" She patted the back of one of the operatives before running straight into the hull of the SCAMPER. The S.R.S.S.T members followed closely behind, slowly retreating back into the VTOL. Bullets ricocheted all over the outside exterior of the craft, causing the pilot to immediately take off after all operatives on board were accounted for.

"You really stirred up a hornets nest!" The pilot commented despite his voice being drowned out by the sound of small fire arms hitting his aircraft.

"I know right?" she said exhausted taking a seat on the two rows that lined themselves up at each side of the craft. Rachel was just glad she got out of that situation, but she knew that right now was no time to rest.

"Numbuh 362 to command, evac successful, failure to apprehend target. Also, the unknown hostiles that attacked me did not appear to be insurgents, but rather black ops or mercenaries of some sort, any clue on who it could be?" Rachel whispered into her ear piece.

"Copy that, hmm... that is strange, were there any markings on them?" Maurice commented back.

"Negative."

"Now that's definitely out of place... we'll talk about it more in your debrief, but I got some bad news for you Numbuh 362."

"What is it sir?" Bad news now a days were so common to Rachel that she was almost numb to them.

"Numbuh 5 has responded to the terrorist threat in the Middle East by sending two carriers into the area, and declaring war on the rogue nations there that seem to be supporting Alam Rashir and his insurgency. She and global command want to make it absolutely clear to the world that the Kids Next Door will use whatever means necessary to maintain worldwide stability; using the Middle East as an example."

"Are you kidding me?" This couldn't be good at all, especially since the area was such a volatile place to foreigners.

"Negative, but in all honesty, I think all these events are connected... the European Federation, terrorists, worldwide revolts? I mean c'mon, all these things are way to perfectly timed to be marked as a coincidence, and even Alam Rashir said this was just the beginning... your a smart girl Rach, and I know you got the same feeling too."

"Yeah... but the beginning of what?" Maurice was right, she too suspected something occurring behind the scenes.

"I don't know, but something big is coming, and I have a feeling that it won't be pretty."

...Transmission Interrupted...


	6. Sudden Event

A/N**: I apologize for the long wait, been really busy lately. In a matter of fact, I've been rather slow in updating quickly, and I assure you that it isn't without reason._  
_**

**I've been taking my time to make sure that each chapter is well-polished and organized, in order so that you may enjoy the story to it's full potential. So if it seems like my updates take longer now a days, bare in mind that I'm probably revising and editing the next chapter. Also, for those of you who have read over my past story(s), my chapters are also a bit longer.**

**I'd also like to take the time to thank all those who are reading, have favorited, following, reviewed, etc. my story! I really appreciate it**

**Anyway, without further a due, here is the next chapter!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 6: Sudden Event**_

...Connection Re-Established...

_1 year and 1 month before incident_

Nigel and Naomi waited outside of the interrogation room, patiently waiting for Infinity to get done questioning the captured splinter cell agent. They had been interrogating the prisoner for months now, and it had appeared to be that today he was going to break. No one could withstand GKND punishment, even if it was relatively humane.

It was strangely quiet on the space cruiser tonight, and there seemed to be no explanation for the strange phenomenon. Perhaps it was just one of those days Nigel thought to himself.

"Uno" a familiar voice called out. Nigel found himself staring face to face with Chad, who he knew was still bitter about this whole GKND membership thing. His dark blue eyes penetrated right through the British boy, who was now more than accustomed to the blond's acrid behavior.

"What do you want Chad?" He questioned, Naomi stepping behind Nigel to avoid getting caught in between the confrontation. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the two held sort of a grudge against each other, and everyone on board the space cruiser knew it, including Naomi.

Chad moved his head from side to side, scanning the empty halls of the ship. "Infinity interrogating our little splinter cell agent in there?"

Nigel nodded, feeling Naomi's hands gently being placed on both of his shoulders.

"I see, well I'll leave you two to it... wait a second." The blond boy noticed that Naomi was grasping the famous Numbuh 1's shoulders tightly, almost intimately, and Nigel seemed to enjoy it. Chad grinned, this was the perfect time to take a jab at the boy who stole what was rightfully his.

"How's Rachel?" Naomi tensed up and instantly removed her hands from her partner. It wasn't even like that, she just thought that maybe this form of physical contact would help ease Nigel's tensions, and perhaps even enable her to restrain him should he charge like an idiot at Chad.

Or so she told herself.

"You really know how to push buttons don't you?" Nigel snarled back.

"I was simply asking a question, no need to get all defensive... unless your the cheating kind."

"Wha- what?!" Nigel exclaimed.

"Explain yourself Uno, you seem to be developing quite the relationship with this girl... how would Rachel respond to that?" Chad taunted as he narrowed his vision onto the two 'close' friends.

Chad was testing Nigel's patience, and he was failing miserably. On top of already bringing up an extremely personal topic , he was now also accusing him of cheating on Rachel with Naomi. Ever since Chad had left the KND with the mark of a traitor, Nigel could not stand him, and finally all the negative feelings he felt about his former idol came bursting out.

"It's not even like that Chad, your just a sick twisted moron who tries to ruin everything, no one likes you, hell even the Galactic Kids Next Door didn't want to make you a full operative, your nothing, you never were, and you never will be."

Never before had Nigel spit such detest and anger against someone, but he felt that Chad deserved it. He would probably never forgive what Chad had done, even it was for the survival of the KND.

The former Supreme Leader remained silent, Nigel's words sinking deep into his skin. In reality, Chad didn't hate Nigel, he was just jealous of his position, a position that he felt was wrongfully stolen from him. Chad usually had near impenetrable armor against trash talk, but the subject that was just brought up was too close to home. He had no come back against that.

"Whatever." He muttered as he walked off into the ship's corridor.

Nigel stared down Chad before he finally vanished into another hallway. He took a deep breath, his heart rate raising from his unpleasant encounter.

After what seemed like forever, Infinity opened the room and exited the interrogation room.

"So what is the Novochi Federation planning?"

"You two are off the case, but I thank for you for retrieving the splinter cell agent."

It took Naomi and Nigel a few seconds to comprehend the words that were spoken.

"Wait what? What do you mean we're off the case?" Nigel blurted out.

"Yeah, what the hell?" the brunette interjected.

Infinity sighed, expecting this kind of reaction from the two, "There's nothing more important to be discussed here, he has no valuable intelligence to offer what so ever."

Nigel's shades made direct contact with Infinity's, examining his every facial and body movement.

"Your lying." Nigel grunted.

Naomi glared at Nigel with a 'what the hell are you doing' look.

"Believe what you want Numbuh 1, but that doesn't change the fact that your off the case. I'll contact you once we have a new mission to tend to."

Nigel knew that there was no way he was going to beat Infinity at his own game. Infinity was stone cold and emotionless, and even if he did know something, which Nigel assumed, there was no way he would tell.

But regardless, he was determined to find out.

* * *

"Numbuh 362, I don't think I need to tell you, but the situation has become critical, and the continued stay of one of our orbital fleets and increasing deployment of KND forces in the Middle East just reinforces my assumption."

Maurice, just like Rachel, was sensing something much more sinister brewing, but they couldn't figure out what. The deployment of an orbital fleet, which consisted of two Gihugacarriers and several space class cruisers and frigates symbolized more than just KND might, it also meant that things were quickly deteriorating. Most of the time the ocean based navy patrolling the oceans would be sent to deal with this type of threat, but not this time.

"I know... do you think that the men I ran into could be possibly linked with the European Federation?"

"Possibly, but we have no evidence on them what so ever. Hell, those guys you encountered back there might not even be linked with the EFCT. It's been months since that whole thing happened anyway."

In her gut, she had a feeling the EFCT had a hand in all of these events, but she needed proof, which she lacked. It had also occurred to the girl that maybe something else was being devised, and that maybe the European Federation and Alam Rashir were just puppets of a higher power.

But that was just a sense, and Rachel didn't just work on just hunches alone. In the mean time, she was pretty sure that the EFCT and it's Revisionist government were connected to everything that had occurred lately, especially since everything seemed to coincide with them the minute they took power.

"Ugh, but it's so obvious! Look, ever since the Revisionists came into play all these weird events started happening, that's just a little to much to call off a coincidence I think!" Rachel unprofessionally exclaimed, a sign of her growing frustration.

Maurice sighed, also feeling the added stress of his job. "I'm sorry Rach, but unless you come up with some overwhelming evidence, we can't take any action against the European Federation. All we can do now is hope and pray all of this calms down and Alam Rashir is captured."

The blonde girl sat in front of his desk, unable to think of any other evidence viable enough to support her hypothesis.

Maurice took out a set of paperwork and began typing on his computer.

"I'm putting you on temporary leave, I think you need a break."

Rachel nearly jumped out of her seat, did he really just say what she thought he said?

"Wha- What?!"

"No buts Rachel, take some vacation time, report back here in a week. Get some sleep, relax, unwind a little, because as of right now you look like a mess."

The blonde girl gasped. "I do not!" Of course she looked a bit run down, but she wasn't a mess like Maurice claimed.

"Just take the vacation Rachel..."

Rachel opened her mouth, attempting to protest one more time.

"That's an order, now your are dismissed 362."

The blonde left the room extremely irritated. She had become so accustomed to her job as Supreme Leader that she had forgotten how it felt to be ordered around. She felt like she was wasting time if she wasn't out on the field uncovering whatever conspiracy was forming, but truth be told, she _could_ use some time off. However, that didn't mean she was going to just simply take a break from the investigation.

Walking out into the halls, she immediately headed to the intelligence library of the TND base, hoping that maybe just maybe she'd find some sort of information relevant to her case. It was at times like this did Rachel appreciate her status as a special operative, which granted her access to nearly all the facilities in the underground base.

The place was much busier than it had been in the past, and Rachel guessed it probably had to do something with KND intervention in the Middle East. She wasn't exactly keen on global command's and Numbuh 5's decision to invade the countries responsible for supporting Alam Rashir, but there was nothing she could do about it. Now a days she followed orders, not the other way around like she did in the past.

Passing down the corridors, she was surprised to arrive at an empty intelligence library. When she entered, she was surrounded by towering shelves filled with folders, all from an era when spying and gathering intelligence were at it's finest. It was a time period that Rachel was glad she was a part of, but unfortunately her breed of spies were slowly dying, now viewed as past relics that no longer served a purpose in an age where technology dominated nearly every aspect of the KND. It saddened Rachel knowing that others like her probably wouldn't get the opportunity she once had now that global command had diverted many of the resources for the spying branch to other fields it deemed more 'necessary", which Rachel thought was a grave mistake. Now that there were less spies on the field, the KND knew less and less about it's enemies, which probably would've helped stop many of the events unfolding now. Back then, people like Alam Rashir and the Revisionists would've most likely been thwarted, there plans and goals stopped dead in their tracks by the brave operatives of a once proud KND spy network.

Pondering about her past glory as a spy, she sat on one of the desks that had a large flat screen in front of it along with a wired keyboard. The minute she turned it on, she typed her in her username and password on the log on screen.

_...Initializing Systems..._

_System Loading... Loading..._

_Rachel McKenzie, Code Numbuh 362_

_ACCESS GRANTED_

The large screen suddenly flashed a bright blue, followed by a variety of numbers that moved up and down several boxes on the monitor in front of her. After the computer was done loading up, it took her to the TND Intelligence data base main page.

She searched up 'Alam Rashir', and his profile quickly came up.

**Alam Rashir**

**Height: **_5'7''_

**Age: **_Unknown_

**Weight: **_Unknown_

**Eye Color**_**:** Unknown (wears jet black shades)_

**Hair Color:** _Black_

**Blood type:**_ Unknown_

**Gender**_: Male_

**Relatives:** _Unknown_

**General Appearance: **_Always caught wearing camouflaged uniform, militant style._

_**Description:**__ Leader of terrorist organization, responsible for a number of bombings and insurrections, goal seems to be to take down the Kids Next Door. Also has a strange fascination with the stars, and reconnaissance often reports him using a pentagon looking communicator device._

Well, apparently he's done a good job concealing identity, which shocked Rachel. Even though spies were far and between now a days, she would've thought they'd at least be able to get some basic information about him. It was strange, and even though his profile revealed nothing to her, it intrigued her how he was able to elude the KND, almost like he was a ghost.

But one thing at the end of his profile did catch her attention. According to the data base, he had a strange fascination with the stars, just like the Revisionists, and he also has a device shaped as a pentagon... now things were getting interesting.

She remembered that during her investigation in Paris, she caught Revisionists members exchanging a similar type device. Now, could all of this be connected?

Possibly.

Trying to dig deeper into her case, she decided to search up more about him.

There was nothing about his past life, no information on his family, _if he had any_, or any records of him even being born! Either he was using a different name or...

Ditching the typing, she switched to voice command. "Computer, when did he become a terrorist leader?"

"March 6th, 2015. Alam Rashir takes command of _The Ascension Truth_, an extremist worldwide militant organization devoted to overthrowing the major powers of the world in order to pave the road for the arrival of so called 'extraterrestrial beings'. " the female voice responded back.

Now the first part of it made sense, there were many terrorist organizations just like them who would like to see nothing better than the world burned and under their total control. But pave the road for _extraterrestrial being_s...? Alam Rashir and his closest inner circle must be crazy...

But no matter of far fetched that idea may be, Rachel took it into consideration, especially with the strange things that have happened lately.

"What else occured earlier in the year? Any strange anomalies? Any at all?"

The computer monitor brought up a number of files in a fraction of a second, and pulled up a rotating map of the world, finally landing on a location in Siberia.

"January 22nd, 2015, strange unidentified object enter into Earth's atmosphere and crash lands in Siberia, territory of the United Adolescents of Russian Republics. Both KND and UARR authorities send specialists to retrieve debris, but find nothing but a large crater. Event still considered a mystery and still under investigation."

Contemplating the computer's word's she asked another question, trying to connect everything together.

"When did the Revisionist political party make it's first appearance in the European Federation of Children and Teens?"

"March 10th, 2015." the computer responded back.

She knew she was on to something, but she wasn't sure what.

That was until she really thought about; both Alam Rashir and the Revisionist came to being in the same months, and only a few days apart at that. But what of the object that crashed landed onto Earth almost two months ago? Was it possible that it was connected?

It couldn't be, that wouldn't make any sense at all. She told herself she'd take everything into consideration, including the idea of other worldly beings, but this was just too out there.

Concluding that her little investigation had come up inconclusive, Rachel signed off and left the intelligence library. Just outside of the room, she could hear a number of footsteps running down the hall, which meant that something urgent had come up. The blonde promptly stepped outside into the hallway, finding a number operatives hastily heading towards the main chamber of the base. She followed them, wanting to get to the bottom of all the commotion going on.

The base was active, but never like this. She finally arrived in the huge circular room, where everyone seemed to be staring at the several large screens that were scattered around the main intersection of the base.

"What's going on?" Rachel quietly whispered into one of the operatives.

"Just watch for yourself, this is unbelievable." the teen said shaking his head.

Rachel lifted her head up and narrowed her vision onto the large flat screen.

What she witnessed live on TV would horrify and haunt her for the rest of her life.

* * *

A child plays in the central park of New York, enjoying the peaceful and quiet Saturday morning.

His mom was sitting on a bench, one of the many parents that were keeping watch over their kids. Most of them were glad that the anti-age virus was keeping them young, especially the older parents, for now they were almost guaranteed to see their children grow up. Scientists investigating the virus's effects on their DNA showed that the virus did more than just keep their hosts young, it actually appeared to extend human life span by quite a bit, but for how long was uncertain.

Unfortunately, another side effect of the virus was that children matured at an accelerated rate, making them act almost like full blown adults by the time they reached age sixteen. As a result, kids were no longer what they were in the past, and the growing instability of global affairs only forced them to grow up faster.

But for now, the mom and her child sat peacefully in the park, miles away from the escalating violence that seemed to be spreading out throughout the world.

"Hey Mommy!" the young boy called out, "Look at me!" the boy swung higher and higher into the air, before a loud explosion in the distance abruptly flooded their ears. Unsuspecting joggers and pedestrians around and in the park stopped, searching for the source of the commotion.

Then, as if a product of the blast, a shock wave raced through the park, causing the trees in the area to slightly bend over, and paper trash to fly everywhere, creating mass confusion amongst both children and parents alike.

The young mom instinctively glanced up towards the Freedom tower, which she was sure was the victim of another terrorist attack. To her relief, and many of the others in the area, the building was still standing proudly unharmed, a symbol and testament of New York's resiliency, and a constant reminder to never forget those who lost their lives on that horrible September morning.

However, this brief moment of comfort was short lived when she turned to the Empire State building, which had a large gaping hole that was smoldering in flames. She could see debris falling from the epicenter of the explosion, and the fire appeared to be spreading throughout the skyscraper.

The faint smell of smoke crept rapidly downwards, first into the city streets, and then to the park; finally reaching the mom and her child.

And then, unexpectedly a series of other explosions in the distance could be heard, followed by the noise of screams and panic echoing throughout the metropolis.

Shortly after, the sound of sirens and microphones filled the city streets, and everything after that was a blur for the mom, as she instinctively grabbed her child and ran as far away from the scene as possible...

* * *

Some were sad, some confused, but many were angry, wanting vengeance against whoever committed this cowardly and heinous attack against innocent civilians.

Rachel watched the events unfold on the many flat screens in the large circular room, also feeling a strange wave of emotions brewing up inside her. Apparently the KND's military intervention in the Middle East did nothing to protect them against another terrorist attack.

The targets included the Empire State Building, New York Times Square, and the Manhattan bridge. It was clear now, the perpetrators of the attack were hell bent on inflicting as many civilian casualties as possible. Whoever planned it, and she already had her suspicions, had this thought out for months, hell maybe even years, and there was no telling if there were other possible targets.

She glared at the screen in disbelief, the images of ambulances racing throughout the city, the live broadcast of a burning Empire State Building and Manhattan Bridge, and a city square in total anarchy. It was an event that she knew would be forever imprinted into her brain, a tragic memory she would never forget.

Rachel was certain that an event this big would forever change KND foreign policy, and that from now on things would be headed at a downward spiral. She wasn't sure exactly how the Kids Next Door would react, but she knew it couldn't be good.

Before it was an attack on a KND embassy, but now it was an attack on the mainland, which showed that no one was safe, not even the premier superpower of the world.

* * *

"Nigel, are you sure we should be doing this?!" Naomi was near hysterical, if they were caught there was no telling what their punishment would be. In a matter of fact, she had no idea why she had agreed to go with him in this first place.

Perhaps because he was her team mate, or perhaps because she was complete idiot just like him.

"Stop stressing! Besides, I didn't force you along!" Nigel hushed as he plugged in a device that would hack open the entrance into Infinity's office.

Earlier, much to Naomi's protest, Nigel had suggested that they sneak into Infinity's office, hoping to shed some light on what appeared to be a growing conspiracy . In the recent weeks, Numbuh Infinity had become increasingly reclusive, even more so than in the past, and to make matters worse, news from Earth had come to a complete halt, highly unusual for a planet that was unaware nor involved in the galactic war. Several times Nigel had confronted Infinity about the issue, but every time the shady operative insisted that it was just a problem with their communications array, or that their part in the galaxy was receiving transmission interference from the planets and nebulas nearby.

Another thing that raised suspicion in Nigel was that Chad, the only other Earth operative on board besides him and Naomi, seemed to be dropped and re-assigned to other missions left and right.

He knew that Infinity, hell, probably even GKND Central Command was hiding something from the three of them, for whatever strange reason.

Soon immersed in the somewhat large room, Nigel headed straight for Infinity's desk, and Naomi walked around the office in search of anything out of the ordinary.

The British boy pressed a button on Infinity's desk, which revealed a square holographic interface that shined a greenish blue in front of him.

The light illuminated the whole entire office, causing Naomi to become even more anxious.

"Um... Nigel what are you doing?" Naomi hesitantly asked.

The brunette stared at her British team mate, his face indicating that he was undistracted by her question. She was about to give up waiting for an answer when his voice suddenly broke the brief silence.

"Finding out the truth."

Nigel waved through the data base, before finally arriving on a file named _Novochi Federation Target's._

Under the files were the names of hundreds of worlds, all which had known or suspected splinter cell agents on them. The planets were ordered from least to the greatest, depending on how severe of a threat the system faced from the Novochi Federation.

Nigel quickly moved his index finger to the side, each passing holographic image showing a planet with a higher risk level than the previous. He knew that the struggle against the Federation was getting bad, but he didn't know that the situation was this dire.

After mindlessly waving through the data base, he realized he skipped over a familiar planet, with a familiar name. He waved his finger back, bringing up an image of a planet with huge oceans and great bodies of land.

It was Earth.

Just as he was about to read GKND data regarding the planet as well as the threat levels it faced, the alarms throughout the entire ship went off, followed by blue blinking lights that filled the room.

Nigel and Naomi stood petrified, had they been caught? They were soon given an answer when the ship's captain shouted a message on the ships intercom.

"This is not a drill, I repeat this is not a drill! The capital is under attack, I repeat the capital is under attack! All crew members prepare for hyper jump."

Their little investigation would have to wait for now, and the two quietly crept out of the room to man their battle stations.

Everyone knew something was going to happen soon, but they hadn't expect it to occur at the capital of the Republic, Afthonia.

* * *

Several days had passed since the New York bombings, and the TND was busy at work trying to locate those responsible for plotting this heinous act of violence. The entire planet was outraged, for it symbolized more than just attack on New York City, it symbolized an act of terror against humanity. From Egypt all the way to South America, millions of people joined the KND in grieving, and many paid their respects through raising tributes and memorials.

Gifts from the leaders of hundreds of countries came flooding into the Moon Base like no tomorrow, a touching act of kindness that even got through Rachel.

The terrorist attacks got an immediate response from the Moon Base, and Numbuh 5, the Supreme Leader, had ordered an immediate world wide deployment with the cooperation of several other nations to combat the growing threat of international terrorism.

The bombing had claimed over a 1,000 innocent lives, including women and children. The youngest victim of the attack was a toddler, about only 10 months old, killed in the attack on the Empire State Building.

The European Federation remained rather silent matter, almost appearing to have supported or even orchestrated the whole thing. People living within it's territories were put in jail for mourning over the attacks, showing that it wasn't it's people who hated the KND, it was the now in power Revisionist government controlling the country. Rachel suspected that the EFCT had something to do with this devastating event, but like Maurice had told her, unless she had proof, nothing could be done. Her temporary leave was also now invalidated, much to her relief. Besides, it's not like she was going to take the week off anyway; she had a job to do, and she would put her life on the line if it meant stopping another plot like this from manifesting.

But Rachel wasn't the only one affected by this catastrophic incident.

The recent events made her already-worried riddened parents even more paranoid. They were fine with her being the Supreme Leader, but now that she re-assigned back as a field operative, well, that meant that their daughter had a higher probability of becoming another casualty. Surprisingly to Rachel, it was her father who took things the hardest, for he couldn't bare the thought of his precious little girl becoming the victim of a stray bullet, or god forbid torn to shreds by a suicide bomber. It also didn't make things any easier that Harvey, now a captain, was also enlisted in the KND.

Both their parents, on a number of occasions, had tried to convince both of their children to quit, and instead go to college to pursue whatever profession they desired. They even attempted to use their abundance of wealth to persuade their offspring to leave the service, but to no avail. Just like their mom and dad, both children were neither born nor raised to be comforted by material goods, a trait their parents cursed at times like this. Instead, Rachel, even Harvey, would rather advance something they believed in, and would even die for that belief if that's what was necessary.

However, even though two didn't like the idea of their own children being put on the front lines, they accepted the notion none the less. Rachel and Harvey were growing up, and no matter how hard it was for their parents to accept it, it was inevitable. The anti-age virus may have changed society, but it did not change children-parent dynamics.

As she entered the main circular room that intersected all the hallways in the base, the television screens around them suddenly went blank, followed by a short phase of static. Low mumbles and gossiping briefly spread throughout the room, when suddenly, a face appeared on screen.

It took a second for everyone in the room to register the image before they all instantaneously figured out who the owner of the face was. It was yet another message from the world's most wanted terrorist, Alam Rashir.

"Dear Supreme Leader." His low but commanding voice echoed in the personal's ears.

"I'd like to bring up a past event that you enacted... oh so many months ago, and well, that planned worked out just fine didn't it?"

Rachel stood petrified, she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"And now the world must know of your failed attempt to capture me, and that you, Ms. Supreme Leader, have inadvertently caused the deaths of thousands of innocent lives, which may I add, would have been prevented if you had caught me."

Every operative and person in the base, as well as the world stood silent, listening to the terrorist leader's speech.

"The attacks on New York," he smirked, "planned by yours truly, was another attack against the oppressive Kids Next Door. Once again, I have shown just exactly how vulnerable you are against me..."

His voice got lower, almost in a mocking taunt. "You couldn't even protect the most important city in the world against a few guys armed with home made explosives..."

"You may have the technology, the resources, _temporary_ worldwide support, hell, you may even catch me... but nothing will stop what's coming, and when it does, you will fall... all will fall."

The television finally returned back to it's regular broadcast, leaving a stunned world-wide audience.

Noticing that everyone around her was paralyzed, Rachel spoke up. "Well, don't we got a terrorist to capture? Don't just stand there! Track him down!" Upon hearing Rachel's commands, the operatives around her began scurrying over each other, getting straight to work on finding the deranged teen.

Even though she was no longer the Supreme Leader, she still had an authoritative side of her, and even her superiors respected her as an equal.

No matter how much Rachel tried to deny it, she was a natural born leader, and everyone knew it. Little did she know that she would once again need to utilize this skill in the foreseeable future.

Whether she liked it or not.

* * *

"Shuttles 25 - 28 launching to the surface of Afthonia in five minutes!" A voice announced in the hangar bay.

Nigel and Naomi were puzzled, along with everyone else on deck.

How the hell did the Novochi Federation manage to sneak an assault fleet this deep into GKND territory? It was previously thought that another major offensive by the Federation against the Republic would occur at it's outer territories, not at the capital. But now it had appeared that not even the center of the GKND Republic was safe from reaches of the Novochi war machine.

Outside of their space cruiser named _Niviana_, a massive space battle was taking place, causing a sense of dread to plague many of the ship's personal . Even though at this current moment they could not see the destruction unfold, they knew it was big; the inescapable firing sound of the cruisers massive plasma batteries deafening their ears, and the movement of the ship being rocked back and fourth by the explosions shot by the enemy ships just outside.

"Ready for combat?" Nigel questioned while they were walking towards their destinations on the hangar bay.

Naomi sighed, "sorta, guess we won't be there to back each other up this time though."

For the first time in quite awhile, Nigel and Naomi would be separated. Even though both showed great skill in ground combat, Naomi was considered an ace pilot in the Republic, and the captain of the ship saw it fit that she lead several small squads of fighters against the enemy. Nigel on the other hand, would be instructed to help lead the assault against Novochi forces that had already landed in the capital's main city.

"Shuttles 25 - 28 launching to main city of Afthonia in two minutes!" the voice on intercom said one last time.

Realizing that they be would apart for the duration of the battle, Naomi squeezed Nigel in her arms before she ran off.

"You take care ok? I heard it's a bloodbath down there."

Nigel smirked, "Nothing I can't handle, besides, I'd be more worried if I were you. It's not exactly dandy out there in space either."

The brunette rolled her eyes before waving off. Nigel watched as she headed towards her squad of fighters who were busy making last preparations to take off. He always admired how sharp Republican fighters or formally known as _RF-176's,_ appeared, and he knew that if Numbuh 2 was here, he'd go absoutley crazy about it's design. The space craft had two engines on both sides of the somewhat protruding cockpit, and on the side of each of the large turbine looking engines were small wings armed with small plasma cannons and several missiles... or so that's what they looked like. It was also was trimmed with gold and blue at the end of each wing, bearing the colors of the GKND Republic.

Promptly entering his assigned space shuttle, he couldn't help but notice the nervous looks at all the marines on board. They were all fresh recruits, drafted into the Republican army due to the ever-growing conflict that continued to claim countless lives as time passed. And to make matters worse none of them had ever seen real combat, for the Niviana was sent away to patrol Republican territory, not to the front-lines. The most action many of them have ever seen were on peace keeping missions, or helping suppress piracy in galactic trade routes.

But here they were now, fighting face to face with an enemy that was both battle hardened and determined to expand the Federation.

The main bay to the shuttle began to close, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of uncertainty. He'd been on missions like this before, but it had been quite awhile since Nigel had partaken in a full on battle.

Shifting his focus on his mission objectives, he closed his eyes briefly as the shuttle slowly lifted itself into the air. However, they were not the only ones headed towards the planet surface.

Around them, dozens of other shuttles hovered in the air, waiting for the main hangars air lock doors to open.

"All spacecraft, prepare to launch out immediately, air locks opening in thirty seconds."

Below them, the crew members saluted them, waiting to prepare the next batch of space craft launching out towards the battle. They had no worries about the hangar doors opening, for a magnetic shield would keep them from drifting off into space. The air locks were mainly sealed for safety purposes, only opening to allow fighters and other spacecraft to deploy from it's hangar.

After waiting for awhile, the air traffic controller began the final countdown.

_Hangar Doors Opening in_

_...5..._

_...4..._

_...3..._

_...2..._

_...1..._

The air locks opened, revealing an abundance of flashes and explosions of every color he could've possibly imagined. From what he could see through the pilots seat, which was just in front of him, there were hundreds, if not thousands of warships of every shape and size firing indiscriminately at each other.

The shuttles took off, and Naomi's squadron and several other fighters zoomed ahead of them to clear out any enemy fighters that would block their route towards the planet's surface. They were almost instantly plunged into the vacuum of space, dodging plasma and laser fire as they attempted to enter Afthonia's atmosphere. Their ship violently shook, and the rookies on board observed in terror as they saw a shuttle next to them turn into a burning heap of space debris.

Nigel kept his cool, watching a Republican space carrier fall victim to several Novochi cruisers who concentrated their fire on the unsuspecting ship. The massive carrier took a number of hits, but still managed to survive the deadly barrage of plasma and laser weaponry. Then, as if responding to a distress signal, several Alpha Republican battleships tore the Novochi space cruisers to shreds, reducing them to nothing but large burning pieces of scrap metal.

This site seemed to ease Nigel's senses down, for it was an indication that their side was still in the fight.

Much to Nigel's surprise, most of the shuttles that took off managed to make it out of the battle safely, and perhaps this was because of Naomi's doing. She was always a more than capable pilot, but he was still worried about her.

If she got shot down in space, there was no way she'd survive, but negative thoughts such as these wouldn't help him while on a mission.

He looked outside at the planet below, and watched as they headed closer and closer towards the now war torn capital of the GKND Republic.

...Transmission Interrupted...


	7. Siege

**A/N: Apologies for the long wait, I revised this chapter quite a bit, but knowing me, there's bound to be a typo or something somewhere. Thanks for all of your continued support!**

* * *

**_Chapter 7: Siege_**

...Connection Re-Established...

"Squadron leader, boogie on your 6!"

Naomi twisted her head back, spotting a Novochi fighter trailing closely behind. It was shaped like a diamond, covered in black and grey shades, and seemed to have wings protruding from it's back. After years of combat experience, she'd never seen space craft of this design, and she assumed that this was a new fighter of some sorts, one that she was completely unfamiliar with. She didn't know it's capabilities, it's weaponry, absolutely nothing, and she wasn't comfortable with that thought at all.

Instinctively, Naomi dived down, expecting her pursuer to quickly lose sight of her. The brunette's fighter thrusted downward towards the planet, zooming through what seemed like an endless clutter of giant warships and explosions. Several times, both Republican and Novochi fighters nearly rammed into her, too disoriented or distracted by the ensuing chaos to even acknowledge the girl's presence. Although visually terrifying, what frightened the young pilot the most was how eerily quiet everything was; the pitch of sound unable to travel through the empty vacuum of space.

The engagement between the two fleets continued to grow even more intense with each passing second, leaving no end in sight. As she struggled to evade her pursuer, several large flashes coming from the main batteries of a Republican battleship hovering over her illuminated her cockpit, and she watched as the plasma projectiles ripped right through the hull of a smaller, much less armored Novochi frigate, turning it into nothing more than a smoldering wreck.

Checking her six o'clock again, she was astonished to find that the enemy fighter was still on her tail. She hadn't expected this at all, before this type of maneuver would easily evade any star fighter that the Novochi Federation had in it's arsenal, but apparently this simply wasn't the case. Barrel rolling and turning left to right, she tried her best to shake off the boogie, but to no avail.

She continued to perform tricky maneuvers that would make even the most seasoned veteran pilots pass out, but the red lasers coming from the enemy craft' continued to inch closer and closer to Naomi's fighter, before it literally began stripping away the paint that coated her wings.

Something had to be done and fast, or she would most certainly become another casualty in this never ending war. It was a fate she didn't want, not in space at least.

Just when things started to become desperate, a barrage of blue lights came down on the enemy star fighter, causing it to explode instantaneously. Moments later, squads of Republican fighters descended down behind her, forming several V formations in the process.

"New Novochi tech, tricky bastard's to shake." her squad mate casually spoke through the headset.

Naomi let out a deep sigh of relief. "Yeah, thanks for the back up. When the hell did they start using these damn things?"

"Looks like they saved them just for this sort of occasion, they're proving to be quite the annoyance to take out, but nothing our pilots can't handle."

The brunette unconsciously nodded, before realizing that they were still in the battle.

"I see... well enough chat, Veta squad and Topika squad provide the space cruiser _Niviana_ and the carriers with support and protection against enemy bombers, the rest of you on me!"

"Roger that!" the other pilots replied simultaneously.

"Good, now prepare to engage the enemy. I wish all of you the best of luck!"

The brunette throttled up her engines to full power, and the fighters around her did the same, heading straight into the thick of battle.

* * *

Deep within the main city of the Republican Capital, Afthonia, the fighting raged on in the distance, aggravating an already stressed out retrieval team.

"Chancellor Tolmiros, you must evacuate the city immediately! Federation forces are en route to our very location." Behind the girl stood her trusted companion, and a dozen Republican soldiers. They were specifically assigned to evacuate the Supreme Chancellor from the planet, but that was proving more difficult than previously thought.

"I, Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, refuse to cower away from the face of our enemy." the Chancellor viciously said back to the girl.

Serena, or Numbuh 900, sighed, why did the Supreme Chancellor have to be so stubborn?

The young black haired man standing behind her spoke up, "Either your're going with us, or we're going to have to force you."

"Is that a threat Numbuh 313?"

"Your damn right it is." Aiden, Code Numbuh 313, responded back, his dark emerald eyes unaffected by the Chancellor's words.

Chancellor Tolmiro snuffed at Aiden's threat, "well then make-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the large glass window behind him shattered, throwing Tolmiros forward towards the group. Instinctively, Serena grabbed the Chancellor, quickly forcing him to hide behind her.

The Republican soldiers raised their guns, aiming straight at a black figure that had just entered into the room. They were rudely awakened when they recognized the teen that stood before them.

"It's you..." Aiden gasped.

The figure smirked, two energy blades deployed from his wrists.

* * *

The shuttle finally made it into the planet's atmosphere, traveling over the enormous temperate forests towards the massive metropolis. Below them, Republican forces were quickly deploying in forest clearings and emerging from nearby bases, grouping up to make one last attempt to push out the enemy from their capital.

However, Nigel would not be joining them, but would instead be sent straight into the city with the hope that his expertise would help halt the onslaught of the Federation army. Also with them were several other shuttles sent from the star fleet, all carrying batches of infantry as well as vehicles to help reinforce the already thinning forces fighting within the city itself.

Closing in on the capital, batches of flak, volleys of plasma, and lasers could be seen spewing up into the air, causing uneasy feelings to settle on the rookies on board. Nigel stared in awe at the now vacant city, it's occupants either hidden or evacuated early on during the first stages of the invasion. This was a far cry from the usually vibrant and busy capital, which Nigel had only visited a few times during his stay with the GKND. It was a constant reminder to Nigel, as well as everyone else in the Republic, that in this war no where was safe.

The once prestige center of the Republic, it's very heart and soul, was now being decimated by the very forces it sought to protect it self from.

After a brief detour of the city that gave sight to spiraling towers, and massive interconnecting bridges, they landed near a mobile command post that had just recently deployed in the area. The command post was allowing influxes of soldiers, vehicles, and ships to land and enter into the area, making it vital to the city's defense. They had managed to deploy remarkably fast, and the British boy was surprised to spot Personal Defense Armored System(s), or _P.D.A.S's, _already being unloaded off several gunships.

P.D.A.S's, or more commonly called "_A-suits_" were small mechanized armored suits (_thus the abbreviation A-suits_) operated by a pilot. It's design was relatively simple; composing of two large legs, a large chest cavity that acted as the cockpit (users legs also partially fitted into the robotic legs), a head that acted as a camera, and two large arms that could be equipped with a multitude of weapons. The armored suit itself was only about several feet taller than the average person, enabling the pilot and his A-suit to be more maneuverable, efficient, and a smaller target for the enemy. Nigel also had his own personal A-suit that he customized himself, but unfortunately, it was left on board the Niviana.

They were impressive pieces of machinery, and had widespread use on both sides, although the Federation's lacked in pilot training as well as technological innovation. However, their arsenal of A-suits outnumbered the Republic's by nearly three to one, making them a potential threat to any Republican soldiers on the battlefield.

As the cargo bay to the shuttle began to open up, the rookie marines began shaking nervously, and Nigel could swear some of them were on the verge of passing out. It was completely normal to be nervous on the first mission, but these guys took the feeling to a whole other level. Heck, they weren't even directly in the line of enemy fire, sure they were pretty damn close, but GKND Republican forces had managed to keep the Novochi at bay from advancing further into city, for now anyway. There was no telling how long they would hold off, and with the main Republican star fleet tied down, they would receive no additional support.

Nigel glanced up, greeted by a large number of skyscrapers that towered over their position. An environment like this had forced both sides into urban combat, a scenario Nigel hated the most. The tight roads and alleyways blocked tanks and other vehicles from providing support, and close quarters combat didn't exactly thrill the boy either. From his experience, urban combat was the most vicious and bloody, and he could recall many times where he got too up close and personal with the enemy. He'd done unspeakable things, but he had no choice, it was either him or the other guy, and every single time he managed to come up on top.

"General Uno!" a voice called out.

He wasn't used to someone addressing him by the name, but then again, the GKND held very different perspective on how generals were used during battle. Aside from laying out tactical and strategical plans, commanders often fought in the front lines along with their men, a far cry from the role of a typical general. Perhaps it was meant to boost morale, or perhaps it was complete stupidity, but either way it seemed to work well for the Republic's army.

In a matter of fact, Nigel often forgot that he bared such a high rank, especially after being sent on boring patrol missions with gathering intelligence (_also boring_) being the only source of excitement during his deployment. Now he totally understood why Chad was jealous of his position. He couldn't help but cringe at the thought of being stuck in his former idol's situation. Imagine, having someone who wasn't even aware the intergalactic body existed, inadvertently steal a position that he had so longingly worked towards for years. Now instead of Chad being a commander of the Republic, he was still just an agent, not even worthy of being compared to Nigel's status. In fact, he still wasn't even considered an operative.

But here Nigel was now, taking part in recapturing the capital of the Republic.

Commanders, like Nigel, were often recruited from different planets (GKND Republican territory or not) and would be often put through a variety of tests and games that simulated situations that they would often encounter when sent off to fight the Novochi Federation or any other GKND enemies. In most cases, the individual would be completely unaware that they were being tested. If the subject passed GKND tests, they would immediately be offered the chance to be recruited into their ranks, provided they had also proved themselves to be an intelligent, resourceful, and efficient combatant.

Turning his head, he immediately recognized the person who had requested him. He was wearing a customized Republican helmet that engulfed his entire head, which vaguely resembled one's used by the United States army, although much more advanced and alien looking. The helmet also had a large visor that was fitted into the piece of armor itself, shielding the soldier from shrapnel and vision impairments. On the side of the helmet were small slits that that allowed the user to breathe filtered air, as well as talk. Due to being almost totally covered in armor, their voices were conveyed through a built in head set, making their voices sound a bit muffled. He also wore custom plated armor that had several strange markings on it, suggesting that he was a high ranking officer of some sorts. Nigel instantly recognized the young man standing in front of him.

"Good to see you again Numbuh 2224! Update me on the situation."

Numbuh 2224, or more commonly known as _Commander Caden_, was different from most of the GKND Republican army. Unlike most his comrades, who had seen a normal life growing up under the comforts and riches of the Republic, he was brought up under very different circumstances. Caden didn't have the luxury of having a mother or a father, in fact, he didn't have any to begin with. Instead, Caden was created and raised in a special military facility, located on a far off planet deep within the Republic's territory.

Caden, like many others, wasn't the average soldier; he was a clone, bred for the sole purpose of combat.

As Nigel scanned the mobile command post, he couldn't help but notice that many of the soldiers in the area were actually clones, which was made obvious by the three distinct blue markings under the GKND symbol, which consisted of three stars and what appeared to be alien writing that translated into the word 'Republic'. They also carried special equipment and wore distinct armor, far more advanced and durable than the ones issued to the standard Republican conscript.

Clones were nothing new to the Republic, and have served in it's ranks since it's formation. Their DNA base consisted of a combination from some of the greatest Galactic Kids Next Door fighters in history, making them a force to be reckoned with. Republican clones were also genetically programmed to be completely obedient to their superiors, have total loyalty towards the Republic, sharp battle awareness, and a variety of other skills. They were the perfect soldiers, but the time and resources it took to create them made them largely inefficient to make in large numbers quickly. As a result, they were placed in one of the three special legions designated for clone soldiers only, and were regarded as the most elite and prestige fighting force of the galaxy.

"We have kept the Federation from entering the main portion of the city, but their forces are quickly overwhelming our defensive perimeter." His muffled radio voice was neutral, not a hint of fear being expressed. It was trait Nigel admired, but at the same time, one that worried him. Nigel, like many other generals, developed a close bond with his clone commander, a bond that could only be found in the field of combat. He knew that if the circumstances permitted, Caden would waste no time giving his life to protect him or advance the Republic closer to victory. The loss of a clone commander was almost like losing a brother, a traumatizing, and emotionally wrecking experience.

"Very well, is the enemy force showing any signs of weakness?"

"Negative General."

"Our are forces taking heavy casualties?"

"Affirmative General."

And here Nigel was aggravated by his clone commander's blunt and straight forward responses.

"Is there any good news at all?!"

"Negative general, enemy star-ships continue to spill out of hyper space, and just recently the Supreme Chancellor has gone missing. His location was last transmitted five miles behind enemy lines on his way to our position."

"Send a message to all free Republican starships to hyper jump back to the capital, we need all the help we can get. And who was sent to retrieve the Chancellor?"

"Copy that, and Numbuh 313 and Numbuh 900 sir."

Wait, did he hear correctly?

He was taken back a bit by the mentioning of the two operatives, remembering that he had fought alongside both of them during the war between Father and the Kids Next Door on Earth. Apparently they had advanced quite a bit through the ranks of the GKND, but that wasn't what caught Nigel's attention. If contact with them was lost, that meant they were pinned down, or worse. It didn't make Nigel feel any better knowing that the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic was there with them either.

"Call in an _ATAC_ team, tell them that their mission is to rescue the Chancellor."

Advanced Tactical Alpha Class, or simply known as _ATAC_, was an elite force of clones that were separated from their more common brethren before they were even born. Unlike the typical clone, these units were bred and trained specifically to handle missions deemed to dangerous or impossible for standard Republican soldiers. In order to achieve the desired results, ATAC troopers underwent different protocol and were given enhanced genetics that allowed them to be physically stronger, smarter, and possess more individual thinking and courage than their more docile counterparts. As time went on, veteran ATAC troopers would sometimes find themselves re-conditioned for another training program that would enable them to advance their leadership and strategic skills, with those passing becoming clone commanders, like Caden.

"Affirmative General, I'll assemble a team right away."

* * *

"He's too fast! Have you sent out a distress signal?!"

"Negative! They've jammed our communications, we're on our own."

The small group of survivors was running through the stretch of bridges that interconnected many of the giant buildings that made up the city. The hooded figure back at the Chancellor's office had taken out over half of the Republican soldiers in mere few seconds, forcing Aiden and Serena to instantly flee the scene. They were on their own now, and with their communications blocked, the situation appeared grim.**  
**

"Serena, do something! I can't stall his ass while carrying the Chancellor at the same time!" Aiden was carrying their leader on his back, inhibiting him from fighting the figure hellbent on capturing them.

Taking the initiative, the remaining soldiers stayed behind to provide cover fire, but the sound of their guns went quiet seconds later. Their sacrifice did absolutely nothing to slow the hooded figure down.

Realizing the urgency of the situation, Serena searched her surroundings while sprinting. Scanning the environment, she looked down, spotting another bridge about thirty feet below them. Thinking for a few seconds, a dangerous but daring idea suddenly dawned upon her.

"Jump!" The anxious operative nudged. Serena's face was filled with fear, but even then her partner failed to see the logic in her plan.

"What?! That's suicide!" Aiden protested.

"For the Republic's sake, just go!" the leader of the GKND urged his protector.

Reluctant, he stepped to the edge, bracing himself for the fall. As Aiden took a step forward, he sighed, praying that they landed safely on the bridge below them.

And then, as if flying, they spiraled downward, wind pushing upward against their faces. Several seconds later, they were greeted by a loud thud, and a short burst of pain that passed through their bodies. Too everyone amazement, they had landed safely on the bridge.

Aiden stared at Serena who was smirking back at him with a 'I told you so' look. Although Aiden hated when his significant other was right, he didn't really care , for he was the dominant one in their relationship anyway, or so that's what he thought.

Glad that they had made it safely on solid ground, he proceeded to comment on the situation.

"Boy that was-" he stopped mid-sentence when he spotted their pursuer jumping down towards them.

"Is this guy even human?!" Aiden exclaimed.

"I doubt it... don't you remember our last encounter with him?" Serena commented back.

"You're right, all the more reason to get the hell out of here."

"Who is he anyway?" the Chancellor questioned, "I thought we had a profile on all Federation commanders."

"New guy, names General Asdan, and at the rate he's going, I think he might even take command of the entire Federation army," Serena answered back, leaving out any unimportant details. Now was not the time to thoroughly explain to the Chancellor who their foe was. It was Asdan, the most feared general in the Federation army, who was leading the attack on the Republican capital, which answered the question on how Federation forces managed to penetrate this far into GKND territory.

Jumping mindlessly onto the other bridges, they eventually shook the general from their tail.

Suddenly, the air around them became eerily still.

As the three ran through a series of bridges and stairs, Serena stopped, sensing something extremely out of place.

"Something's not right..." the girl muttered aloud.

"Well, if it isn't Captain obvious, of course something's not right! First off we're being chased by a psycho-pathetic general, second off we're stuck behind enemy lines, and third off the Chancellor is in danger! I swear Serena you-"

"Shhh..." Serena hushed.

Aiden rolled his eyes and reluctantly quieted down; he hated it when she was commanding.

Serena reached for her two pistols, cautiously taking them out as she observed her surroundings.

"Serena, seriously this isn't the-"

Aiden instantly shut his mouth when he began to hear the sound of metal clanking just above them. All three survivors slowly turned their heads up to the source of the disturbance, wondering what could possibly be causing the commotion.

They soon got their answer when over a dozen figures dropped down towards them, completely surrounding the group.

"Novochi Assassin's!" Serena yelled, not waiting a second more to unload her magazine into the enemy ranks.

Unfortunately for them, the assassin's were specially trained and supervised by Asdan himself, making them his own personal guard.

The general's men took out their high powered sub machine guns in response, sending a barrage of high velocity bullets towards their direction. Serena and Aiden struggled to dodge the projectiles, blocking the Chancellor with both of their bodies to prevent him from getting shot up.

Moving forward, the assassin's powered up their energy blades (ones similar to General Asdan himself) , and gave chase to the trio.

They were fast, especially when given the fact that they were using modified combat armor that increased their mobility.

The couple and their VIP ran aimlessly around the city, praying that they would shake off the skilled set of soldiers. As they ran and jumped onto the high rise bridges, they finally found themselves at a dead end, completely surrounded by the enemy.

Then, as if getting a command from the general himself, several of the assassin's jumped forward, thrusting their energy blades in an attempt to stab Aiden and Serena.

"Stand back Chancellor!" Aiden shouted, pushing him against the wall to move him away from the ensuing brawl.

Aiden grabbed the plasma rifle from his back, firing away at the enemy as they drew closer and closer towards him, finally forcing him to use it as a melee weapon. Mean while Serena was busy blocking and slashing away at the agile assassins, but they just kept on coming.

They needed help and fast, for the fate of the Republic rested in their hands.

* * *

"Located several life forms near our location." the clone pilot of the Republican gunship transmitted via holographic image to Nigel.

"Very well, tell your to team to prep, remember your mission is strictly to rescue the Chancellor and any other survivors, nothing else."

"Affirmative general."

"Very well, I expect nothing but the best from the Republic's finest."

The holographic image of Nigel on the pilots control panel shut off, leaving the ATAC team to do what they did best. On board were about 8 troopers, with the pilot also being a member of the clone fraternity.

"Approaching target commander."

"Roger that Clone 1380, proceed to target and activate jamming signals."

"Yes sir."

The gunship began emitting signals that would disrupt nearby enemy radar, making them nearly invisible to lock-on based anti-aircraft weaponry. Nearing closer to their intended destination, the ship zoomed in between high rise buildings and bridges, cautious as to not run into the enemy.

As they passed over the Republican defensive perimeter, the visible flashes of gunfire became more vivid, and they were suddenly greeted by the sound of flak and lasers exploding outside. Despite the commotion, all clone troopers on board remained calm, unaffected by the possibility of getting shot down. There were no signs of nervousness, no sudden panic, just the sound of the ship's engine and explosions. It was like everything too them was totally normal.

The ship finally found itself only several hundred feet away from Serena and Aiden, who were now completely surrounded by enemy assassins. Improvising quickly, the pilot of the gunship powered up two frontal machine cannons and fired away at the group of enemies, mindful of the Chancellor and his two escorts.

After softening up enemy resistance, the gunship landed near the Chancellors location, unloading the ATAC troopers.

"Landing now, go, go, go!" The pilot announced, opening the sliding doors of the gunship.

The ATAC troopers dismounted from the ship, providing cover fire against the remaining Novochi Assassins, who had now pulled out their sub machine guns and laser rifles**.** A fire fight soon took place, causing the three survivors to duck down in order to avoid the barrage of lasers and bullets.

Acting directly on mission orders, the squad leader immediately grabbed the Chancellor, helping him board the gunship.

"You're safe now sir, we'll be leaving shortly."

Chancellor Tolmiro nodded, out of breath and still shaken by his encounter with General Asdan.

Two other clones also grabbed Serena and Aiden, practically dragging them onto the ship.

"It's about time you guys showed up!" Aiden commented.

Moments later, all three were situated on the gunship, prompting the squad leader to order the rest of his squad to pull back.

"Evac now!"

The five remaining clones coordinated their retreat carefully, shooting back at the enemy as they went.

The last ATAC trooper finally boarded the aircraft, sitting at it's edge to pepper spray his gun into the now thinning ranks of Novochi assassins. Looking out to make sure everyone had made it back safely, the squad leader nodded at the pilot, giving him the que to take off. The ship ascended slowly, before it's main engines finally ignited, causing the ship to jerk forward back towards Republic lines.

Taking a breather, Serena scanned the hull of the gunship, a bit surprised that all clones had made it back on board virtually unscathed. It never ceased to amaze her how ATAC clones seemed to inflict massive casualties on the enemy with little to no loss of their own.

But then again, this is what they were made for; their sole purpose to serve in combat, nothing else.

Letting out sigh of relief, she turned to Aiden who was slumped down at the back of the gunship, physically exhausted from the ordeal. Although it was a close call, they had managed to complete their mission successfully. With the Chancellor now back in Republican hands, the two could momentarily rest easy, but they knew that the war against the Federation was far from over.

* * *

"Commander Caden, on me!"

Nigel and his men had finally halted the Novochi advance, and had commenced a counter attack that would push them to the outskirts of the city. Communications with the Republican fleet up above was shaky at best, but ground forces had hoped they had the situation under control. If either of them failed, it would spell disaster for the GKND Republic.

It was a bloody struggle, but war is war, and it's what had to be done if the Republic had any chance of survival.

While the clone commander and Republican soldiers began clearing out enemy's to make a path towards him, Nigel was busy fighting close quarters with several Novochi soldiers. They weren't as trained nor as experienced as Republican clones or regular soldiers , but they had sheer numbers on their side, and they could quickly overwhelm any location if ordered to. The standard Federation foot soldiers' armor was basic at best, consisting of only a light chest plate, knee pads, and elbow pads placed over a thick black suit. On their heads they were a standard black helmet that had a tiny symbol of the Novochi Federation on it's side; two wings branching out from what appeared to be a sun.

Although considered mediocre compared to their Republican counter parts, the standard Federation soldier was not to be taken lightly, for just one minute of underestimation could lead to a quick and sudden death.

Realizing that it would take at least a couple minutes for Caden to come to his aid, Nigel fought harder as Novochi soldiers continued to charge directly at him. Taking out his trusty plasma rifle, he took several of them down, before he was forced to to engage in hand to hand combat. Grabbing a pistol and energy knife from his utility belt, he quickly dodged incoming bullets, dropping several more enemy soldiers in the process.

Despite his gallant efforts, Federation soldiers kept just kept on coming, leaving Nigel no choice but to fight on. One soldier charged straight into him, but Nigel made short work of him by stabbing him in the chest and then shooting at another who attempted to sneak behind him.

A stray laser suddenly found it's way to Nigel, hitting his right shoulder. He yelped in pain as he felt a burning sensation quickly travel throughout his body. Fortunately for him, the stopping power of the beam was largely absorbed by his armor, making the shot non-life threatening. Unfortunately, that didn't stop the crippling pain from immobilizing his right arm.

Desperately fighting off with only one working arm, he kept firing his pistol madly at the encroaching enemy. Calling for help would be useless, Republican soldiers around him were to busy fighting just to stay alive to even notice the wounded general.

Nigel soon found the enemy closing in around him, narrowing his options of escape. The only way he was going to get out of this one was through a miracle, but Nigel knew that in this war, there was almost no such thing.

As he prepared for his final stand, several plasma and bullet rounds pummeled the group of Federation soldiers, killing all of them instantly. Nigel scanned around him, dazed and a bit confused by the situation that had just unfolded.

"General Uno, are you alright sir?"

Nigel stood up and rubbed the back of his head, "Um yeah, thanks Commander." **  
**

Caden nodded, "The main fleet has just sent a transmission informing us that Federation forces have initiated a full scale retreat from the capital... the day has been won sir."

"Good to hear, and the Chancellor? Numbuh 313 and 900?"

"Safe, they just landed at the command post."

Nigel let out a sigh of a relief, with the Chancellor rescued, and the invasion of Afthonia repelled, it appeared that the Republic had survived to fight another day.

* * *

On the main bridge of a Novochi Capital starship, General Asdan stares out into space, and prepares to order his fleet to hyper jump back in to Federation territory. With his main objective completed, there was no longer a point in extending their stay at the capital. Republican reinforcements would soon arrive at the scene, making staying any longer suicide for him and his forces.

Contrary to what the GKND Republic had thought, they weren't after the Capital or even the Chancellor himself, but that's exactly what the Federation wanted them to believe. Instead they were after something much smaller and ancient, something that may have dated back to even before the Federation or the Republic.

The General grinned as he pulled out a translucent but brightly illuminating crystal from his pocket, staring at all of it's features very intently. It was such a tiny objective, stolen from Republican archives while his army ravaged it's capital.

How ever insignificant the crystal may have appeared, it's contents possessed the potential to change the entire course of the war, and with it, the course of history.

...Transmission Interrupted...

* * *

**A/N: So in case you haven't noticed, this chapter was entirely focused on Nigel as well as Naomi. Let me know how you like this transition! I feel that certain sections are better if it's based entirely on one or more characters, instead of shifting from different POV several times in the same chapter.**

**Again, let me know how you feel about this change!**

**Thanks again! Will update ASAP.**


	8. Precognition

**A/N: Hey guys! I'm sorry about that unintentional hiatus, but I'm back!**

**A big reason why this chapter wasn't posted sooner was because of proof-reading... which caused me to re-write A LOT of the chapter.**

**Anyway, here's the next chapter!**

* * *

_**Chapter 8: Precognition**_

...Connection Re-Established...

_11 months before incident_

It had been several months since the attacks on New York, and Rachel was still no closer to tracking down Alam Rashir. Unfortunately for her and the KND, the once promising commitment of the world's nations to combat global terrorism began to wane, decreasing their already slim chances of eliminating Alam Rashir and his terrorist organization, _The Ascension Truth.  
_

The worldwide war against terrorism was becoming frustrating to the say the least, and many began to question if it was even still worth fighting. With the recent events brought about by a sudden global financial crisis, worldwide, as well as domestic opinion about the sending troops abroad to counter terrorists began to deteriorate. The war, to many, was futile, especially when there wasn't even so much as a hint to speculate Alam Rashir's where abouts.

It was like he was a ghost, disappearing and reappearing as he pleased.

The world around Rachel appeared to be on the verge of almost complete turmoil, and if it wasn't terrorism that was wreaking havoc, it was the negative repercussions the financial meltdown had on the worldwide economy. In fact, it had gotten to the point where the financial crisis was no longer just an economic problem, but also a social, humanitarian, and political one as well. And if that wasn't troubling enough, the EFCT, despite also facing economic setbacks, had started a military build up, producing almost a sort of small scale cold war with the KND. All of this, bundled together with KND budget cuts and an already strained military, produced almost the perfect storm for catastrophe to occur.**  
**

Rachel started to believe that all these events were purposely combined to transpire against the Kids Next Door; as if it was all a part of one big elaborate plan.

Perhaps the only positive side effect that came from all of this was that the Teens Next Door was no longer a secret branch of the organization, and was immediately publicized right after the attacks on New York; part of legislature that was aimed at increasing KND recruitment and homeland security. It brought relief to many, including Sector V and many of her friends, who were just about to undergo decommissioning in a few months**.** For the time being, it had appeared that the once inevitable fate of most operatives was now a thing of the past, a product of the changing, and also, troubling times.

Rachel struggled to relax as she tossed and turned in her bed. These thoughts circulating in her head weren't helping, but it was all she could think of.

It was rare that she took a day off, but Maurice had insisted, or rather _forced_, and there was no way around that. With nothing to do, Rachel decided that she should catch some sleep. Even though she was no longer the Supreme Leader, her job still required her to stay awake for up to several days at a time, with her usual routine only allowing for one to three hours of sleep a day, if she was lucky.

Shutting her eyes, she attempted to control her breathing and clear her mind. Perhaps she did need this day off, she couldn't even remember the last time she had actually stayed home for more than two hours, let alone being home in general. Gazing emptily up towards the ceiling, a rumbling sensation emerged from her abdomen, followed by a familiar pain. The blonde clenched her stomach, recognizing that she hadn't eaten for nearly two days. She hadn't been able to care for herself, but who could blame her really. With service came sacrifice, and Rachel was one of the few who would be willing to take up any challenge, no matter how daunting, or overwhelming, for the sake of those around her.

_Geeze, maybe I have been neglecting myself. _She thought to herself.

Getting out of her king sized bed that was covered with blankets hand made in Italy and exotic cotton from the far east, Rachel decided that she would head down towards the kitchen. Placing her feet in a pair of loafers, she walked over the red rug and out of her large living quarters.

She headed down the intricate halls of mansion, passing by notable paintings and the couches that were neatly spaced apart. It was relatively quiet in her house today, with only the occasional faint sound of a maid or butler walking around to make sure the house was neatly organized and presentable.

It was no secret that Rachel was a rich girl born into an affluent family, but she never dared use that influence to advance herself in the KND; in fact, she did quite the opposite. She didn't want to be seen as the type of person who bought their way to the top, especially since she herself viewed such activity unfair and detrimental. Sure, she usually did posses the latest fashion items, the latest phone, hell, even the most high end cars, but it's not like she showed it off; besides, most of the time she got them without even asking. It's not like she was spoiled after all, it just wasn't within her personality, and it certainly wasn't how she was raised. However, there were times she wished she just had a normal life, in a normal suburb, with a normal family. But perhaps the one thing she wanted the most was her parents presence. Unfortunately for her and her brother, their father was always working on surgical procedures at the hospital, and her mom was always too busy analyzing financial data for several large corporations, leaving them little, if any time to spend with Rachel and Harvey. It wasn't that she wasn't appreciative of her parents, it was just that she wished that they were home more often, then maybe Harvey wouldn't have turned out so egotistical and aggressive.

But that's just how things were, nothing she could do about that.

Drawing nearer to the kitchen, she could hear what sounded like movement in the kitchen, most likely her brother snooping around their endless supply of food.**  
**

"Hey big sis!" her brother called out as she walked into the the culinary space, affirming her assumption. "Taking a day off?"

Rachel nodded, "more like forced" she mumbled under breath, stumped that her dad was also sitting across the kitchen table with Harvey.

"Dad you're actually home?"

Rachel was shocked; her parents were never home, and it was a rare sight seeing even one of them at any given time.

"About time my little soldier checks out from her job! You're even busier than your pops!" Her father commented as the family chef presented him and Harvey with a professionally made omelet covered in a variety cheese and spices.

"_Merci, _can you please also make another one for Rachel?"

"No, dad it's-"

"Non-sense, you haven't sat down in months, the least you can do is spend a couple minutes with me and your brother."

Rachel sighed as she took a seat. Out of all the people to bring such a topic up it had to be him, oh the irony... but he did have a point.

"So daddy, how's work been lately?" The blonde girl asked twiddling with her fingers.

"Same as always, dealing with surgical implants, removals, and the operating on the occasional bullet wound, how about you sweetie?"

"Oh you know, gathering intelligence, you know, the usual..."

"Top secret I'm assuming?"

"Yep, as always..." Rachel said half smiling. She hated having to keep secrets from her family, especially since her job as an intelligence operative required her to stay away from home for long duration's. Unlike her brother Harvey, she wasn't allowed to disclose anything to anyone, no matter the situation.

"Understandable." he solemnly replied back.

There was a brief silence before Rachel heard the familiar sound of a communicator went off.

"Gotta go!" Harvey announced, taking one last bite of his omelet before grabbing his bags and taking off.

"Later son, don't train too hard."

The now teenage boy nodded, disappearing out of the kitchen before bolting out through the front entrance of the mansion. Rachel stared at her brother; how he was promoted to the rank of captain, she would never know.

"Madam Rachel." A plate with a freshly cooked omelet appeared in front of her, smelling unusually appealing, more so than it had been in the past. The comparison between the cafeteria food she had back at base and this was almost non-existent.

"Thanks, Abel" She said with a genuine tone. Rachel always made sure that her servants were aware that she was thankful for what they were doing, and never once talked down on any of them. It was a trait her parents instilled into to her at a very young age, constantly reminding her to view those serving her as equals, not property.

She began digging into her plate, when her father suddenly stood up.

"Guess I better start heading to work, take care soldier." Her dad made a goofy salute.

"You too dad."

* * *

"Give me an update on the situation."

"We're almost done, " The other teen answered his hologram communicator while he busily typed away on his laptop. The holographic image was blurry at best, but it was better than nothing, especially when given the fact that the transmission was coming from an especially staggering distance.

"Don't beat around the bush with me, I need a straight answer now, chain of command is getting very impatient."

"We've nearly hacked into their defensive systems, and our little diversions seems to chipping away at the Kids Next Door, but even then I'm not-"

"Don't tell me you are not sure, either you give me a precise time now or I'll have to deal with you myself."

The teen gulped, the person he was talking to wasn't exactly known for his compassion or mercy. He either got what he was instructed to do done on time, or it was his life on the line. Oh, how he hated being put in charge of this entire operation.

"Give it 11 months, by then we'll have control of the situation, well, as far as I can tell."

There was a brief pause before he got a reply back.

"It better be for your sake, our plans have been delayed long enough."

* * *

She was bored, no, she was _beyond_ bored by this point.

Rachel was alone in her house; her brother reporting back to the TND base, and both her parents at work. With nothing to do, and absolutely nothing in her possession that would allow her to advance her inner workaholic, she laid in her bed in total solitude.

"Damn it Maurice." Rachel grunted quietly to herself.

It was only twelve in the afternoon, and with her schedule completely wiped clean of anything that would possibly keep her busy, she attempted to fall asleep again, if that was at all possible. The ex-Supreme Leader wasn't the type of girl to just sit around, but at this point it's not like she had anything better to do, yet alone a choice.

It was either sleep or lose brain cells watching a scripted reality TV show. Being a smart girl, she went with the first option.

Truth be told, Rachel really didn't have a life outside of her line of work, and it was at this point did she really realize that. For as long as she could remember she was apart of the Kids Next Door, basically coming to the point where it became fabricated into her own being. She could've been anything she wanted, a doctor, a politician, a lawyer, absolutely anything. But she wanted to do something better with her life, something that would give her a sense of purpose. When she first joined the KND, she initially held the belief that all children should live free of adult tyranny, but as things around her slowly unfolded, she realized that she wanted to do something more than that, _something much more meaningful_. However, what that something was remained unclear, for now anyway.

Feeling a heavy burden on her eyes, her vision slowly blurred followed by brief episodes of disorientation. After ten minutes of drifting in and out of consciousness, Rachel began to feel her body slip from this realm into the next, until finally, she fell asleep.

* * *

"Rachel!"

The blonde girl opened her eyes and sprung up instantly at the sound of a voice hissing her name. She looked around her room, finding the once brightly sun lit room now completely covered in near darkness. She searched frantically for the owner of the voice, but found absolutely no one in her quarters.

Who could've possibly called her name? It sounded as if someone whispered right into her ear, and the the tone sounded almost urgent. Rachel began to feel an eerie feeling conjure up inside her, and she knew it wasn't her mind playing tricks on her, no, she was far too trained for that. Whoever it was, they managed to sneak into her room undetected, which automatically made them a potential danger in her book. Rolling quickly over to the side of her bed, she grabbed a hidden pistol that she kept right under her mattress, specifically placed in case of emergency situations like this.

Standing up, she aimed the pistol in front of her, carefully scanning every inch of her room. Moments later, the blonde was perplexed to find that there was no one else in the room besides her.

It was... strange.

Sensing that whoever had whispered her name had left the vicinity, she creaked open her door and emerged slowly but ever so quietly into the large hallways. Judging by how dark her room was and how almost pitch black the hall ways were, it was almost night time, and surely her family was home for dinner by now.

But complete stillness and calmness of the mansion suggested otherwise. It was almost like no one lived her at all, almost like the place was just, abandoned...

Something was definitely off.

Advancing down the spiraling staircase, she flicked on a switch that would turn on the lamps and chandeliers that were attached to the walls and hanging on the ceiling. But when she did so, the lights didn't respond. Very odd.

Perhaps the power was out, and her family and everyone was gathered in the living room or something.

"Mom, Dad, Harvey?"

No response, just the sound of the wind howling against the outside walls of the house.

"Is anyone here?" Her voice echoed throughout the mansion.

Again, no response.

What the hell was going on here? No power, possibly no people... where was everyone? And if there was no one here, who could've possibly called her name?

Rachel was starting to get the creeps, but she wasn't going to lose her cool here. Whoever it was who called her name was gone by now, that much was certain. Acting on instinct, Rachel was driven to exit the mansion, convinced that the answer to her questions lay outside. Heading towards the door, she began to feel uneasy, sensing something abnormal about everything happening around her.

She creaked the door open slowly, until the space behind the door was finally revealed.

* * *

"Tough war eh?" Naomi stood next to a stressed ridden Nigel. Ever since the attack on the capital, the war began to shift in favor of the Novochi Federation, as they continued to capture more and more star systems. The initiation of a campaign against the Republic's outer rim territories was proving to be a most effective strategy, especially when taken into account that the attack on the Republic's capital dealt a severe blow to it's morale.

It was a strategy that was devised by General Asdan himself, for he knew that the GKND Republic's outer rim territories were the least guarded, while also yielding a great deal of natural resources that would help fund the Federation's war machine. Everyone knew that the situation was becoming dire, and several members of GKND Senate had already proposed the possibility of 'peace' with the Novochi Federation if it meant ending this devastating conflict. They were a minority for now, but as each passing day brought news of Republic defeats and lost star systems, their voice in the Senate grew stronger.

They were losing the war, and there was no form of propaganda, no form of manipulated news that could convince Republican citizens otherwise.

"Yeah... tough war." Nigel sighed, he wasn't sure how much longer he could take this. He was really beginning to feel overwhelmed beyond comprehension and he was sure he wasn't the only one feeling the growing pressure.

Nigel was literally going from star system to star system to capture the illusive and cunning General Asdan, only to find the smoldering ruins of once thriving civilizations. He was getting frustrated, but he knew that Asdan's death or capture would allow the Republic to gain the upper hand. Another thing that weighed heavily on his mind was why in the hell was Earth deemed facing "high risks" from the Federation? What could possibly be on his home world that had caught their attention? Nigel was about to confront Infinity about this, but he was stopped dead in his tracks by Naomi, who realized that such a question would only be self-incriminating evidence that they broke into his office.

The legendary operative stared out of the ship's massive bridge, out towards the dozens of heavy star-cruisers and battleships. He and Naomi had been reassigned to the _Acula,_ a Republican capital ship that served as the center of Nigel's new star fleet. Although Nigel now possessed immense power, he didn't take pleasure in being responsible for the lives of countless soldiers and naval personal. As of right now, they were on routine patrol, awaiting for further orders from GKND central command, and more notably, awaiting for the next sighting of General Asdan.

"General Uno, urgent transmission from Numbuh 719, aka General Nathan!" One of the ship's communication technicians shouted.

"Bring him up." Nigel instructed.

The communication director nodded, directing a live hologram to a projector near Nigel's position.

"Finally, I was beginning to think I was the last man standing... everyone else must have their hands tied right now." The commander let out a sigh of relief.

"What seems to be the problem Commander?"

"My forces are staging an assault against the Federation in the Alkatin system, and we need reinforcements or this operation is doomed to fail."

The bald boy was bewildered; an assault? "What do you mean your staging an assault? We're on the defensive, not offensive! Haven't you gotten the memo?"

"Of course, but I believe there's something on this world that will help us gain a better understanding of our enemy. The key to winning any war is not just through blunt force, but through knowledge, you of all people should know this."

Nigel thought about it for a second; Nathan was a respected and well-regarded commander, so there had be something on the Alkatin system that really got his attention, let alone put an entire star fleet at risk.

"Hmmm, but what gives you reason to believe there's something important there?"

Nathan thought about his answer, "There were rumors circulating that the Federation had begun excavation almost immediately after they captured the planet. From what I can tell there looking for something, but what, I'm not sure." Nathan paused before he continued.

"But whatever they're looking for must be important, and I want to find out whatever the hell it is.

Nigel nodded, "I see... We'll be en route to your location soon. You better be right about this."

* * *

It was a quiet evening, with nothing but the sound of the wind howling and the ambients of crickets chirping. It was almost soothing, but Rachel sensed something more sinister hiding behind the guise of the calm night.

Her mansion was situated far from the city, to the point where it's bright lights wouldn't obscure the stars up above. She glared up at the surreal night sky, her mind feeling like it was slowly drifting along with the rotation of the Earth as it orbited around of the sun. She wondered for a minute what sort of other life forms and civilizations were out there, and was it possible they faced the same problems they did on Earth? Maybe not, or perhaps war and conflict was a fundamental concept, one that stretched out all the way out into the far reaches of space.

But perhaps the thing she contemplated the most was about that one boy, that one boy from Sector V who had saved her life countless times. Her conscious began manifesting questions that she knew would not yield any answers, questions like; how was he doing, had he forgotten her, had he found someone else? All these negative feelings filled her brain until finally she dismissed all of them. She trusted Nigel with her life, and she knew the same went for him.

And then, as if coming into a state of epiphany, Rachel let go of all her problems, until her mind was totally free of thought, free of societal constraints, free of the pressures of work, and free from the ever changing and turbulent world.

For a brief moment in time, she didn't sense any danger, no sense of urgency, no stress.

Just peace.

Rachel's moment of solitude was abruptly interrupted by a loud rumbling noise, one that nearly deafened her. She searched around, until she spotted up in the sky, a pulsating blue light come down on the far away city. As soon as the beam made contact with the ground, a blinding light eclipsed the horizon, followed by a large gust of wind that nearly threw her back. She began to feel the temperature around her rise, causing her skin to develop a burning sensation. Watching in horror as the city appeared to evaporate into thin air, she came to the realization on what was happening, until finally, the light reached her...

Rachel perched up gasping for air, drenched in her own sweat. She was now back in her room, her windows revealing that it was still broad daylight outside. Initially she was confused, until she checked her clock.

Fifteen minutes passed one o'clock pm.

Apparently she had dozed off, explaining the hour jump in time. But that dream... It felt like it lasted for hours. It was strange, she couldn't even figure out what the hell just happened to her. Everything felt so real, and she could even recall feeling the gust of wind and siring heat nudging away at her. Rachel wasn't the believer of the supernatural, but something about her dreaming experience felt unusual, almost paranormal. She felt like it all meant something, but her dream was so vague she could hardly figure out what.

Rachel recollected the events of her dream; a calm beautiful night, instantly ruined by what appeared to be an apocalyptic event. She even recognized the weapon that was being used; it was a pulse cannon that had been developed years ago under the name Project: ZEUS, a weapon that ultimately ended the war against Father. In the time span since then, the KND had launched several of these super-weapons into space, deterring any attacks from anyone who wished to harm the sole superpower. But in her dream, that very same weapon appeared to be used against the very nation that created it. It didn't make any sense, the KND was the only entity that possessed such weapons. Perhaps it was just her mind being a little hyperactive, after all, the world did face the serious threat of Armageddon, with or without pulse cannons.

"Ugh, get it together Rachel..." the blonde mumbled to herself as she buried her hands into her palms.

* * *

"We have just arrived in the planets orbit, awaiting for further orders General." Caden notified.

"Very well, any enemy star-ships in the vicinity?"

"Negative, the Republic is currently in control of the orbit."

"Excellent, begin deploying troops onto the ground below to reinforce the Commander Nathan's assault, and alert the rest of the fleet to stay on stand by. I want a platoon of clones on the ground as well to help support our regular forces. Whatever Nathan is after, he must be pretty damn convinced it means something."

"Right away sir." Caden walked away, ordering the bridge personal to relay the message to the surrounding star-ships.

"Incoming message from Numbuh 719!" A pre-teen shouted.

Nigel nodded, and Nathan's holographic image appeared on the hologram projectos located in the center of the bridge.

"Glad to see you Uno, and not a moment too soon. Unfortunately I have, um... bad news..."

"What is it Nathan?"

"We have just intercepted an enemy transmission that an entire Novochi armada is en route to Alkatin, eta less than a day."

Nigel sighed, "Are you kidding me? What the hell were you thinking bringing me into this mess?! Now your risking your star fleet and mine!"

"I know, I know, but I assure you, the risk is well worth the reward. If the Federation is going to send out a whole damn armada out here, then it just convinces me even more that there's something of value to them here." Nathan protested. He sounded like he knew exactly what he was doing, but to Nigel, that didn't appear to be the case.

"God damn it! Enough with the vagueness, what the hell are you going on about _?"

Nathan rubbed his chin, "you'd think I'm crazy if I were to tell you, you should come on down and have a look for yourself. My men have just secured the Novochi excavation site... and I must say, it's unbelievable...

* * *

Finally, she was back at work, back on the job, away from the boring simplistic life she had at home. Foot traffic in the base at this current time was at an all time low, due to the fact that it was about three o'clock in the morning; the devil's hour.

Rachel wasn't at all superstitious, but after that dream she had, she became a little more open minded about the topic. Before, three in the morning to her meant nothing, it was just like any other hour, nothing unusual or special about it. But this simply wasn't the case this time around. Her surroundings had an unearthly feel to it, especially with the unnatural silence that lingered over the usually busy halls of the TND central base.

It was as if she wasn't alone, like something was watching her.

Every so often she would hear a janitor walk down the halls, or another late night worker like herself busily typing away. But this wasn't nearly enough to keep Rachel company. She couldn't stop thinking about that dream, or rather, nightmare her mind had conjured up. _If_ it in fact was even her own conscience that had made up the disturbing dream in the first place.

It was rather puzzling, and the rational side of her was telling her just to put if off, that there was a perfectly logical explanation for her little experience. But another side of her was saying that there was something much more to what she wanted to believe, something much more foretelling.

As she began spacing off, she heard the sound of loud foot steps approaching outside her office. Breaking out of her trance, she glanced behind her and spotted a shadow being illuminated down the hall. Examining the situation, she reached for her side arm that she was allowed to carry on her while at the base, a special privilege granted to top agents. She silently crept towards the door, hiding right behind the frame itself.

The footsteps drew nearer, and she could tell it was moving at a fast pace.

She waited in anticipation as sweat quickly began dripping down her face.

Who could it be?

The shadow finally entered into the room, and Rachel took the first initiative of surprising the intruder. She slammed the door shut, lifting her gun up towards the unknown individual.

"FREEZE!" Rachel shouted, her hand on the trigger.

"Woah! Put that thing down Numbuh 362! That's an order!"

Rachel almost instantly placed the gun on the side of her waist, both and embarrassed and relieved to find out who the intruder really was.

"Um, sorry Maurice, just taking pre-cautions ya' know?" She said nervously

"Whatever you say. Well... at least it shows that your surrounding awareness skills are still sharp. Now, I have some important information for you, and I think you'll be a little excited when you find out what it is."

Rachel's attitude immediately changed. "Information? What is it?"

Maurice handed her a document, "thanks to Sector V, we've managed to obtain some very important details regarding Alam Rashir. Just read it yourself, I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise. It's short, but it gets straight to the point, so I'd like you to read it by tomorrow."

"Hmm, alright." She responded back.

"Report back here at my office at 2300 hours, you will be updated when you arrive."

Rachel nodded, skimming through the papers in the folder.

Maurice turned to leave the room, momentarily leaving the blonde girl to her thoughts.

"Oh and Rachel, um, get some sleep alright? It's not healthy to pull up all nighters all the time, and besides, you look like a train wreck."

"Huh?" She said back in a confused tone.

* * *

"Sir, we've just lost contact with one of the ZEUS satellites!" The operator was in a near panic, and the large monitors around flashing with the message "SYSTEMS COMPROMISED" in red didn't help either. With word quickly breaking out of the un-settling news, the activity in the control center exploded with energy. They had to find a solution to the problem and quick, before things got out of hand.

They were all caught off guard; one minute they were fine, the next minute everything was going to hell in a hand basket. Too make matters worse, no one had even the slightest clue on to what was going on. For all they knew it could've been minor solar interference, or worse, a foreign cyber attack that was now in control of the most powerful weapons on the face of the planet.

"What, that's impossible? Bring up the diagnostics." The director anxiously ordered back.

The operator nodded.

A few minutes later, after nearly ten minutes of suspense, the operator, as well as all the other operatives in the control center had figured out the problem.

"False alert sir. It appears to be a minor bloop on the grids firewalls, all system appears to be completely fine.

The head chief of the control center took a deep breath ,"thank god, look into that glitch, I don't want anymore surprises, you got that?"

"Hear you loud and clear sir." he saluted back.

* * *

Deep within a forest in Eastern Europe were two SUV's, one with all sorts of fancy tech that didn't even appear to be from this world, and another one with a small dish pointing up toward the sky. This time they came close to overriding the KND's cyber security defenses, but close wouldn't cut it. Unbeknownst to the KND, what appeared to be a minor glitch in their system was actually a cyber attack aimed at bypassing the security codes that would give them direct control over the ZEUS cannons.

Running short on time, the group around the SUV's huddled around to discuss another plan, one of them, wearing a distinct camouflaged outfit, and black shades. On Earth, he was the world's more feared terrorist

But in reality, he was just one pawn on a chess board.

...Transmission Interrupted...


End file.
